


Arrival of the Birds

by FreezerM



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, Laura Hale & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, M/M, Romance, Slow Build Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, The Hale Fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezerM/pseuds/FreezerM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Laura are best friends. But everything changes after Laura tells Stiles her biggest secret. And not only her secret, but her family's secret.</p><p>[Little bit of an AU since Laura is still alive so Stiles and her become friends. After Laura's death Stiles and Derek grief together.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Work inspired by: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I3HXfdUhF8 ]  
> [if link doesn't work search youtube with: 'missing persons - derekstiles teenwolf ]

Preface.

He parks his jeep before the sign and gets out of the car. He knows this is a really bad time, but he has to know everything right now.  
Twigs and leaves crack under his feet as he walks through the woods. For the first time in his life he’s thankful for the full moon, because without that light he wouldn’t see anything and he’d probably be on the ground now or he would’ve walked into a tree.  
When he’s almost there he hears a sound behind him. He turns around only to see trees and shadows made by the moonlight.   
“This is private property.” A voice in the distance says. He recognizes the voice, as one that he’s heard way too much these last few months. It’s the voice of Derek Hale.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Chapter 1

Even though Laura is much older than Stiles, they are very good friends. They met in High School. When Stiles just started with High School, Laura was in her last year. At first he thought Laura was a little bit strange. Her family lives in the middle of the woods and he barely sees any of them. Except for Derek Hale, Laura’s brother. Derek doesn’t really like Stiles. As far as Stiles can say, because they’ve only met like four times. But that doesn’t matter, because Stiles is scared of him anyways, even though he’ll never admit that. He also finds this Kate-girl really strange. She looks like she could be a serial killer, but she is dating Derek, so that could be correct. Either way, when Stiles goes to Laura’s house for the first time, he decides never to do that again. He really likes Laura, but feels unsafe when he’s surrounded by her family. Luckily Laura understands why Stiles doesn’t want to go to her house anymore, and they continue to hang out at Stiles’ house.  
After his mom died, he lost his dad. He knows his dad is still around, but it’s just not the same anymore. He’s always at work and only comes home to sleep and eat. Stiles didn’t just lose one parent, he lost two.

 

“Hey Laura!” He says as he gets out of his house, Laura has been picking him up for the last few months so he doesn’t need his father to bring him to school. 

“Hey Stiles, how are you today?” Laura is always so formal. Stiles gets in the car.

“Good” he says when she starts the car. He read the newspaper at breakfast before going to Laura, and thinks about the animal attacks that have been happening these last few months. 

“What do you think is up with those animal attacks?” next to him Laura freezes, but it’s very cold so Stiles decides not to comment on it to her. 

“Uhm, I don’t know Stiles.” Stiles has known her long enough to see when she’s lying, and she’s lying right now. He decides he’ll ask her about it later, because when they pull into the school parking lot the bell already rings. 

“Thanks for the ride!” He says as he jumps out of the car and jogs to the school building. As he turns around to wave he sees that Laura is on the phone with someone, so he continues to jog to his class. 

 

When he’s in English class something comes to his mind. With whom could Laura have been on the phone? She doesn’t really have any friends from school, except Stiles. And as far as he knows she doesn’t have any friends outside of school either. So that means that she was calling somebody from her family, but why. She was just there before picking him up, maybe something is wrong? Stiles starts to worry and before he knows he’s making a list of all the things that could have happened – in his head. He’s glad that this is the last class before the lunch break. So when the bell rings he’s the first one out of the class and walking towards the cafeteria. No one is there yet, except for Laura. Which he knew, because before lunch break she always has her free period. 

“Laura, are you okay?” He asks as he takes a seat next to her. Laura’s looks up confused and surprised. 

“Why would you ask me that?” 

“Well, because you were on the phone when you dropped me off and I thought that must be someone from your family then and you didn’t look happy or anything so...” Stiles stops, he feels stupid, even though there could be something wrong with Laura’s family, he shouldn’t demand her to tell him, he should have waited until she started this conversation herself. He looks at Laura and sees her smiling. 

“ Do you know how cute it is when you’re worrying about me?” And yes, there we go again. Stiles hates it when she calls him cute, he’s not cute! He’s a badass!

“There’s nothing wrong with anyone from my family Stiles, I just called Derek to ask him something.”  
Stiles wants to know, he wants to know so badly what she asked Derek, but he doesn’t ask. Because Laura’s face says enough, so he decides to try and ask it another time. 

“Want to come over after school?” And while he asks that question Laura looks up, smiling, and nods.

 

Before he knows lunch break is over and he has barely eaten anything, he runs towards his next class, because yeah he does that a lot. When he walks into his Chemistry class, his teacher, Mr. Harris, doesn’t look too happy about the way Stiles enters. Then again, when does Mr. Harris ever look happy? 

 

When the final bell rings he’s proud of himself, because it’s like the first time this year that he doesn’t have detention after school. He walks into the parking lot and sees Laura’s car standing next to a silver Porsche. When he walks over to Laura’s car, the driver of the Porsche rides away. Stiles recognizes him, it’s Jackson. Jackson is a jerk. That’s all there really is to say about him. While Stiles is making a list in his head about all the things that Jackson has done to him this year, he hears a chuckle behind him. 

“Making lists in your head again, Stiles?” It’s Laura, of course it’s Laura. He turns around and smiles at her.

 

When they arrive at Stiles’ house they get out of the car and go into the living room. He gets the usual drinks they always have and then they sit on the couch together, drinking their drinks. It’s quieter that normal, and the quietness feels really uncomfortable for the first time since they met. When there’s almost an hour gone in silence, Laura starts to talk. 

“We need to talk Stiles, I have something very important to tell you.” Million things cross Stiles’ mind about what she’d want to say. From good things to better and then back to worse. But when she starts, it’s about something Stiles never could have guessed.


	2. Chapter 2

Stiles has never actually known Laura very well. Now it feels like he doesn’t know her at all. The moment she tells him about being a werewolf his whole brain goes error. At first he doesn’t believe it, like the rest of human kind would’ve. But when it’s clear that she isn’t joking…  
His videogames about battling mythical creatures become reality. And with the truth of what his best friend really does in her free time, come many, many questions.  
Of course those questions come to mind just after she leaves. So he has to remember them for tomorrow at school.

He can’t sleep. It’s 3AM and he just heard his dad come home. He keeps playing the conversation between him and Laura over and over in his head. Why did she just tell him this? She could’ve told him earlier. And why did she leave so soon after that. He gets that she might have thought that she’d scared him, probably because he didn’t say anything after she had told him. And Stiles always says something. It was just...

When he woke up he was surprised he fell asleep at last. After getting ready for school and eating he went outside to wait for Laura to pick him up. To his surprise it wasn’t Laura’s car that stopped in front of his house, but her brother’s. Just out of curiosity he walked towards it and was, again, surprised that the passenger’s door opened. He leaned into the door opening to see Derek. 

“Get in the car Stiles, Laura’s not coming.” He made a list of things in his head to get away from this situation. But he didn’t think Derek would find it okay if he suddenly would run off. So he got into the car. While riding to school, his mind kept saying amazing car, amazing car, over and over again. It wasn’t until he noticed they weren’t driving anymore that he saw they were already in the school parking lot, and Derek was already out of the car. 

“Well, are you coming or are you going to stay in the car for the rest of the day?” Derek asks. Stiles is confused. Derek doesn’t even go to this school – or does he - , but he gets out of the car anyway. Stiles walks behind Derek and then he just can’t stop himself any longer. Questions literally fall out of his mouth. 

“Where’s Laura? What’re you doing here? Where’re you going?” Derek turns around, looking pissed. 

“Well, I’m walking you to your class, so hurry up or you’re going to be late.” And he continues to walk towards the school. When they’re inside, it’s noticeably quiet. Is Stiles really that late? 

“Laura isn’t going to school today, so she asked if I would bring you and pick you up. She’s my sister, and I owed her. So that’s why I’m here.” Derek says when they stand in front of Stiles’ classroom door. 

“Well, thanks, I think, for bringing me to school.” He says and Derek already turns around and walks away.

What would Laura have to do on a school day? Maybe she thought he was really freaked out by what she’d told him yesterday. To be honest, he is really freaked out. Especially after just riding in the same car for some time with his best friend’s werewolf brother. He walks into the classroom only to realize it’s Chemistry. He already knows what’s waiting for him when he looks at Mr. Harris’ face.

He’s in detention, and the ticking of the clock is getting frustrating after two seconds. Of course Mr. Harris had to be a jerk again and give him detention for being five seconds late. Just great.  
Being in detention is also not good for his head because he’s still going crazy over what’s up with Laura.

 

When the bell finally rings to announce that detention is over, Stiles practically runs outside only to be greeted with an empty parking lot except for one special – and damn beautiful – black Camaro. And of course its – damn beautiful – driver. Which, he should never think about again because he’s dead afraid of the guy. 

“Why are you late?” Derek practically snarls at him, and Stiles walks a little faster towards the car to maybe make up for being an hour late. 

“I’m sorry I had detention,” he answers. “I kind of forgot that you’d drive me, else I would have made sure you knew!”  
When he is halfway into the car the engine is already running and before he has even closed the car-door the black Camaro is driving away with a slightly pissed off Derek Hale behind it’s steering wheel.

When they’re back in front of Stiles’ house again Stiles tries to apologize a few more times but it doesn’t make Derek look any happier. 

“Is Laura going to be picking me up tomorrow?” he asks hopefully. Derek shakes his head. 

“No she probably won’t be picking you up for a while…”

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“Something is going on, and that’s all that I can tell you right now. I’ll be here to pick you up again tomorrow morning, but I won’t be able to drive you back home. Can you get a ride home with someone else?”  
This is probably the most confusing thing to ever happen to Stiles – except for his best friend being a werewolf then – and he just nods and closes the door behind him. While he walks towards his front door he can hear the car taking of – show off – and he gets inside.

The note on his fridge tells him that his dad won’t be home before midnight – as usual – and he calls Domino’s for some pizza when it’s about dinner time.  
While he’s watching some TV he hears that there is someone at the door and grabs the money for the pizza before opening the door.  
Only it’s not Domino’s at his door, but Laura.


	3. Chapter 3

Laura enters his house without saying a word. He closes the door behind her and follows her into the living room. They sit in silence for a while, Laura looking at the TV screen and Stiles looking at Laura. She doesn’t look good. Bags under her eyes make it clear that she hasn’t slept last night and the sadness in her eyes indicates that something is really wrong.  
He walks into the kitchen to grab her some water and when he returns and puts it on the coffee table Laura falls into tears.

It’s always hard to understand Laura when she’s talking while crying, but what she’s saying at the moment is loud and clear to Stiles. She’s leaving. Not the temporary kind of leaving, the leaving – leaving kind of leaving. 

“Why?” he asks after she has calmed down a little bit to be understandable again. 

“Something is wrong, something is seriously wrong Stiles. I don’t know what it is, but I have to find out. Peter is coming with me. Derek wanted to come too, but I asked him to stay here and look out for you.” – Stiles wants to interrupt her after that but she continues talking – “And don’t say that you don’t need help or protection Stiles, you’re practically tripping over your own feet twice a day.”  
It’s true, he’s clumsy and awkward and all kinds of other stuff, but that doesn’t mean that he needs a babysitter. 

“I don’t need a babysitter Laura, I can take great care of myself.”

“Don’t lie Stiles, even I know you get awfully lonely out here by yourself, your dad is barely around and you don’t have any one to come over except me.”  
It’s quiet after that – again – because Stiles is still shocked that Laura is going away, she’s going to leave him… And for what? A bad feeling about something? It’s just not right. 

“How long will you be gone?” he asks, unsure about what to do with his life when Laura’s gone. He is interrupted by the doorbell and remembers ordering a pizza. He pays for the pizza and joins Laura back in the living room. 

“I don’t know Stiles,” answers Laura to his interrupted question, 

“I’m going away tonight and when Peter and I find out what’s going on and why we all have this bad feeling in our werewolf-gut we’ll make sure to eliminate the problem and come back.” Laura sounds sad and for once Stiles just wants it all to be over. He doesn’t need more people leaving him. His mom left him, his dad is barely home and now his best friend is going to leave him too. 

“I’m going to come back Stiles, I promise.” And then he starts crying too. They cry on each others shoulders for a while and then it’s time for Laura to leave and they say goodbye.

 

When Laura’s gone, the pizza is cold and forgotten. He eats it anyway, he feels miserable. After eating himself sick – because he doesn’t like cold pizza at all – he goes up to his room and tries to sleep. But just like last night, he can’t. He keeps thinking about what he must do with his life now.  
He hears his dad coming home and after that everything turns black because he is finally falling asleep.

 

He wakes up early in the morning and catches his dad before he has to go to work. 

“Dad, can we go look for a car for me this week?” He asks. Honestly the idea has been on his mind for a while; he kind of knew that Laura wouldn’t be driving him around forever. 

“Sure kid, but I have to go to work now.” He gets a pat on his head and then his dad is leaving.  
After breakfast and some scrolling through the internet, Stiles knows for sure which car he wants. He sends a link to his dad’s work email and hopes he’ll get it soon so they can go and buy it. Before he knows it, it’s time for school and he hears the engine of a car before his house.   
It still takes some getting used to, seeing Derek standing outside his house with his expensive – and awesome because that will never escape Stiles’ mind – car. He gets in and it’s quiet again.  
When they pull up at school Derek starts talking though. 

“I know you don’t like this just as much as I don’t like this. But I promised Laura that I would look after you, so I’m going to try.” He tells him. 

“Why weren’t you allowed to go with them?” he asks in return. Derek grumbles something inaudible. 

“Because she doesn’t think I’m ready for such a trip into the unknown.” He eventually says clear. And wow, the guy really does sound pissed. 

“You should go to your class Stiles, the lesson is about to start and you wouldn’t want detention again, would you?” and Stiles is stepping out of the car. “Thanks for the ride, Derek” and running off towards his lesson.

 

He – the extreme dork that he is – totally forgets about not having a ride back which escalates in him walking all the way back home. After a long day it even starts to rain which makes Stiles’ mood even more pissed. When he arrives at home he finds the house empty, dark and cold. He’s sad, so sad that he just sits down in his wet clothes and doesn’t move for an hour.

 

The days go by faster – luckily – after that and Stiles finds himself in a steady rhythm each day. He eats breakfast – and maybe when he’s up early enough he gets to see his dad before he goes off to work where he stays until late – gets picked up by Derek, has classes, has lunch alone, has classes, gets picked up by Derek again, makes his homework, eats dinner – if he’s hungry – and most of the time he goes to bed early.

 

In the weekend he and his dad buy him a car – a really awesome Jeep – and Stiles calls Derek to let him know that he doesn’t need a ride to school anymore. He’s riding with his dad when his dad has to run an errand for the police station and he decides to tag along. They have to go to the vet’s to pick up a healed police dog. When they enter he meets Scott, a guy his age who’s helping the vet out, and they get to know each other.   
He finds out that he goes to the same school as Scott and suddenly the lunch breaks aren’t so lonely anymore. He sits with Scott during lunch and in the few classes they’ve got together.  
Scott comes over to his house a few times in the weeks after that, and they play on the Xbox together. They’re both game-freaks so they get along really well – although it’s always Stiles who wins and sometimes Scott is getting sick of that – and they meet up more.

 

He gets into another steady rhythm now. Breakfast, driving to school, hanging out with Scott before classes, having classes together with Scott, having lunch with Scott and some other people, having other classes, driving home – sometimes with Scott tagging along so they can play on the Xbox – eating dinner – he is trying to learn how to cook so he can maybe make dinner time more tasty for himself - making homework and sometimes watching movies or playing video games until late at night – when it’s way past his bedtime.

 

School is more fun now, he and Scott are friends and they get along really well. Because of Scott he gets to know Lydia, Allison, Jackson – that’s not so great – and Danny. They all sit together during lunch breaks and he almost forgets about the pain that his best friend left behind. 

Almost.


	4. Chapter 4

He wakes up all sweaty in the middle of the night because of some sort of crazy dreams. What it’s about – he has no idea – all that he knows is that it has something to do with a house on fire. Now why would he be dreaming of that?  
Because he can’t sleep anymore he decides to get up and finish some of his homework for today – forgetting that it’s the weekend.

 

When he does come to the realization that it’s the weekend he lets himself fall back onto his bed again. He’s so done with all these sleepless nights. Before he knows – for some kind of crazy reason – he’s texting Derek asking if he can come by later today. He doesn’t know exactly why but he has the feeling that seeing some Laura-related things will maybe cheer him up. He doesn’t get a text back for a while and decides to shower and have breakfast.

 

When he returns to his room he sees that he has one new text and two missed calls. The text is from Derek – asking him why he would want to come over – and the missed calls are from his dad. He calls his dad back a little bit worried. 

“Hey dad, what’s up?” he asks when his dad finally answers the phone. 

“Nothing I should really share with you Stiles, I was actually only checking up on you to know if you’re okay.” His dad sounds worried…

“I’m fine dad, and since when are you checking up on me?”

“It’s just that this last week there has been some sort of animal-killer on the loose around Beacon Hills.” His dad replies fast.

“What, a killer? Do you know who it is or why he’s killing animals? Or she I’m definitely not against feminism or anything - .”

“I can’t share anymore with you about this Stiles, just stay inside and try not to get yourself into stupid situations. Okay?”

“Okay, dad.” He replies, and after that the line goes dead.

 

Stay inside? Yeah right, like he’s going to do that in his weekend, he has been doing that for the whole week. After school – straight home. He decides not to answer Derek’s question about why he would want to come over but simply just texts him that he’s coming over anyway. He gets into his Jeep and starts his long and creepy – through the woods – drive to the Hale house.

 

When Stiles has finally arrived to Derek’s house he is greeted with a grumpy looking Derek. 

“Hey there sourwolf, how are you today?” He asks sarcastically. Derek growls a little bit and Stiles bites a sarcastic comment back. 

“Who told you to come over?” Stiles feels a little bit worried, did Derek really not want him to come over? 

“I could go, if you really want me to.” Derek’s grumpy exterior gets a little softer and less tense. 

“No you’re already here now so that would be even more a waste of energy wouldn’t it? Not that you need anymore energy.” It’s the longest sentence Stiles has ever heard come out of Derek’s mouth. It stays silent for a while before Stiles has to talk again – because silence and him aren’t friends at all. 

“So what were you planning to do today, before I came along?” He looks around for the first time since he arrived and sees that there’s nobody else outside Derek’s house. Everybody should probably be inside doing whatever. 

“I was actually going to prepare for the full moon together with my sister Cora.” Derek has another sister? 

“You have another sister? I didn’t know that, how old is she?”  
Derek sighs, getting frustrated already and Stiles is here for what – like 5 seconds or something – “she’s 4 years younger than me.”

“Adorbs! Can I meet her? And what does that mean, preparing for the full moon, do you like exercise your growls or something? Because I could seriously help out with that, my werewolf growls are awesome!” And Derek growls again – probably because Stiles should really shut up. But Stiles only laughs at it because he remembers the time when he was young and acted like a wolf in front of his mother – which makes him sad immediately – which Derek notices. 

“You can… you may join us if you really want to.”

“Yes, yes! That would be awesome!” Stiles answers, cheered up a little bit again. 

“I’ll just go get Cora, I will be right back, don’t try and get yourself killed in the meantime.” Derek says warningly. 

“Seriously dude, how could I get myself hurt out here?” Stiles yells after him, doubting that Derek would hear him – but then again, don’t werewolves have like keen hearing senses? He read that somewhere – he thinks. He should really ask Derek about things like this, since Laura isn’t around to answer all his questions. And thinking about Laura makes him sad – again. So he decides to wonder around the Hale house a little bit. The house is really beautiful, and the scenery around it too. Stiles would’ve loved to grow up here. He sits down on the steps of the porch and puts his hand on the wooden steps – which he really shouldn’t have done because now he has a splinter in his hand – great. He tries to get it out of his hand – and at that exact moment Derek decides to walk out of the house with a girl trailing behind him. Derek just rolls his eyes at him and then walks past him – while the girl is still following him – and shouts over his shoulder. 

“Are you coming or not Stiles?” Stiles gets up and runs after them, toward the woods. Who knows where they’re going.

 

“So what did he do then” Stiles asks half laughing. Derek is walking in front of them and Cora is walking next to him. 

“He said that it wasn’t his fault, even though everybody knew it was him!” They both burst out laughing and when Stiles hears Derek sighing he laughs even harder. When they finally arrive at the top of some sort of hill, Derek says that they have arrived at the place that they need to be.

 

Turns out that ‘practicing for the full moon’ just turned out to mean that Cora and Derek would be running around playing tag or something. When Stiles saw them storming off he didn’t even try to participate in the game – whatever the game was about, because was it even a game? Derek didn’t look like a guy who would play games – and because he was seriously tired of all his sleepless nights. He just sat down with his back against a tree trunk looking at the two crazy people chasing each other. The sun was comforting on his face – he hadn’t been out of town for too long – and he almost didn’t recognize what the sun behind the top of the trees felt like on his skin. While he was slowly daydreaming away his nights of sleeplessness catched up on him and he fell asleep.

 

Being shaken out of his vivid nightmare Stiles was disoriented and really scared. Where was he and who the hell shook him awake – even though he would like to thank that person for saving him from this terrible nightmare. His memory came back to him and he recognized Derek’s face in front of him, he looked worried – which is a first time because according to Stiles, Derek only knows two facial expressions. Pissed off and annoyed. 

“You okay Stiles?” Stiles looks around him and finds the rest of the clearing empty. 

“Where’s Cora?” He asks, his voice hoarse – when did that happen?

“She went back to the house a little while back, I was going to ask you if you would like to go back too when I noticed you were asleep.”  
Stiles stayed silent so Derek continued talking – that’s a first. 

“You didn’t look like you had slept well these last few days, so I decided to let you catch up on some sleep. Until you started screaming.” Derek finished the sentence talking a little bit softer and sitting down next to Stiles. So that was why Stiles was hoarse.

“Yeah I’ve been having nightmares.” Derek looked at him sarcastically and said, “You’re stating the obvious” with a little smile. And – damn – who knew Derek Hale could smile. It was silent again for a while when Derek spoke again – this really should become a usual thing because Stiles loved Derek’s voice. 

“You want to talk about your nightmares?” Derek asked hesitatingly.

“Not really.” Stiles answered and got up. 

“Let’s go back before it gets dark.” Derek nodded and stood up too. They walked back to the Hale house next to each other, not saying anything else.

 

Stiles was actually surprised that the day had gone by so fast. Hanging out with Derek sure turned out to be more fun than he had thought. Definitely something he should do again. Very tired of the whole day, Stiles – on arriving home – took a sleeping pill because he didn’t have anything planned the next day anyways. After preparing for bed he fell asleep in a – finally after a whole week of restless sleep – dream without any nightmares.


	5. Chapter 5

Another week of school passes by uneventfully. Except for Mr. Harris hating his guts, and giving Stiles detention for the whole week, nothing really happens. Except… there had been more animal killings, and the killings were getting closer to Beacon Hills. He spends his weekends with Derek to distract himself from thinking about sad things – and most of the time it works. He also gets to know Derek better because of that, and finds out that he’s got more than two facial expressions once you can discover them.

Scott starts dating Allison and that immediately put a stop to their gaming-sessions after school. More time for homework you’d think, but that doesn’t happen. Stiles starts doing research on the internet about werewolves after school. He also starts to ask questions about it to Derek, but he never gives him good answers or explanations. The internet is being a bitch to him, it is very difficult to separate the fictional stuff from the non-fictional stuff.  
After having another weekend wasted on trying to find out how werewolves age, he decides to give up and go bother Derek. Maybe he’ll get some useful information out of him this time.

On his way to the Hale house he sees a few police cars on the side of the road. He tries to see what is going on but can’t.

He rides into Derek’s driveway to the house when he sees that there is another car parked there. He decides to park his car in the forest, just a little bit off the road, just enough so it won’t be seen. He walks towards the Hale house and hides behind a bush once he’s close enough. He can see Derek and… Kate. The conversation doesn’t sound good. He can’t hear everything, but he hears enough to know that their relationship looks like it’s pretty much over. After Derek yells “Just go away already!” Kate walks away looking pissed. After she is out of sight Stiles turns his attention back to Derek. He looks like he is ready to wolf out any second now.

“Derek, what’s wrong?” He asks while leaving his hiding place. Derek laughs sarcastically and says, “I should have known you would be snooping around here somewhere.” Derek turns his back to Stiles and starts to walk away. 

“Derek, talk to me.” Stiles pushes on. 

“Just go home Stiles, there’s nothing here for you.” He says very hostile. Stiles nods to himself and starts to walk away. Guess getting left behind by his friends was something he’s almost getting used to now. Derek speaks again with more softness in his voice. 

“I’m sorry Stiles, I’m just really mad right now and everything is going wrong and I’m so tired because I haven’t slept in a few days and- …” 

“It’s okay dude, it’ll all be okay.” Stiles replies and then continues to walk back towards the place where he had   
hidden his Jeep.

After another school week of watching Scott be ‘cute’ with Allison he’s on the edge of giving up on human kind. It’s hard to admit, but he’s feeling lonelier than ever. That’s also why the ringing of his cell phone on Friday night is an utter surprise to him. He looks at the caller ID to see it’s unknown.

“Hello?”

“Hi Stiles, it’s me, Laura.” The voice on the other end is a voice that he has been missing too much these last few days.

“Laura! How are you, where are you right now, do you know what’s going on yet?” Laura chuckles. 

“Calm down Stiles, everything is fine. And yes I did find out what was feeling so wrong lately. Can I come over tomorrow? I’m almost in town.”

“You’re driving while you’re on the phone? Damn Laura I’m so disappointed in you. Don’t run into my dad will you?” Stiles jokes. “Tomorrow is good, I’ll see you then.” Stiles confirms. 

“Great, see you tomorrow!” Just before Laura hangs up Stiles gets a sentence – which he had been holding back for a while now – out. “I’ve missed your voice Laura.” He says. 

“Missed you too Stiles, I will see you tomorrow.” She hangs up, and suddenly it’s quiet again – except for the racing of thoughts going on in his brain. He decides to text Derek, curious about whether Laura called him first. ‘Laura just called, she’s coming back’  
Of course Derek doesn’t reply immediately – the guy is actually ancient when it comes to the technology of these days – except when it’s about cars.   
‘So I just heard’. Derek texts back after a while, and Stiles decides to drop the subject until he can ask Laura all his questions tomorrow.

 

“I’m the next in line alpha.”

“You’re a next in line what-now?” Stiles asks, looking up from the page he had been reading – before Laura barged in like she owns the place.

"Seriously Stiles, I expected better from you! I thought you had killer research skills." Laura exclaims.

"Well researching something that also has many fiction stories about it makes it rather difficult to find out what's true and what’s not. And when I asked Derek he was being a sourwolf about it and didn't want to say anything." Stiles replies. Laura chuckles and takes a seat on his bed.

"So you've been hanging out with my brother?" Laura says curiously. "Well, hanging out..." Stiles mumbles, " More like I was pressuring him in telling me more about this werewolf stuff which he didn't." Stiles blushes and turns his chair around.

"But what were you saying about being a next in line alpha?" Stiles asks.

" Nice way to change the subject Stiles," Laura laughs " well according to Peter and my dad I will become the alpha of my family after my dad can't anymore." Stiles looks at her wonderingly. 

"Before you start asking questions, let me finish my story" Laura says. "Me being the next-in-line alpha means that I have more werewolf powers than just an ordinary beta. This means that on the nights of the full moon I have more of a chance to lose control. Which is why I had to go away for a while, to exercise to not lose my control" Laura pauses and Stiles takes the moment to ask a question.

"So did it work? The not losing control part I mean..."

“In the beginning it was really hard, but eventually I managed to keep myself under control.” When she notices that Stiles isn’t going to interrupt her again she continues her story. 

“I really needed my dad’s help though so I’m really glad that he came with us. But how have things been here?” Stiles looks up and thinks about it. He could probably tell her the whole story about Scott and then how Scott kind of started ignoring him in favor of Allison, but this is a happy day, Laura’s back. So he settles for the most underestimated answer he could think of. 

“Fine. Been missing you like crazy but eventually I was too busy with homework and yeah...”

“I saw a Jeep in the driveway, is that yours?” Laura asks. 

“Haha yeah it is, it’s really awesome right!” When Laura remains quiet Stiles continues talking. 

“I bought it with my dad, because mostly I didn’t want to bother Derek anymore and with all the detention I got he was getting seriously pissed about being obligated to wait for me. So I decided to buy my own car. But it’s such an amazing car! You want to go for a ride?” Laura looks up at him and smiles. 

“Yeah let’s go!”

 

They ride to the forest because Laura hasn’t seen Derek since she’s been back in town. When they arrive at the Hale house they get out of the car. 

“It’s a really awesome car Stiles.” Laura says friendly. 

“Yeah it really is,” Stiles says as he walks by the Camaro. “But this car is even more amazing.” He lets out a long sigh and Laura laughs at him. When they’re almost at the house Derek comes walking towards them with a huge grin on his face. Seriously since when has he the ability to look so happy, Stiles wonders while Laura embraces Derek in a crashing hug. 

“Good to see you again brother.” She says excited. 

“Good to see you too Laura, missed you.”  
When they finally let go of each other Stiles stands there awkwardly, behind Laura. 

“Hi Derek” he says hesitatingly and makes a little wave with his hand. “Hello Stiles.”

“So tell me, what have you been doing all this time Laura. Did you get along with Peter?”

 

They end up going back into town (Laura still in Stiles’ Jeep and Derek in his Camaro) to drink some coffee and catch up. When they sit down at a table Laura makes sure that she’s next to Derek, which evidentially ends up with Stiles sitting across Derek and being glared at the whole time. Which, surprisingly, doesn’t happen. Derek and Laura continue to catch up and Stiles sometimes asks his own questions. After they’re done with their coffees Laura goes to the bathroom before they will all go back home.

“You’re pretty happy to have her back.” Stiles states. Derek looks bothered at him so Stiles continues talking. 

“Which is really understandable because I’m also really happy to see her. But…” Stiles looks around to see if Laura is back already – she isn’t. “Will she go away again or will she stay?” He asks hesitatingly. Derek was just about to answer him when Laura comes out of nowhere and answers for him. 

“I’m planning to stay.” Stiles startles and Laura laughs at him. 

“Forgot about werewolf hearing now did you?” and Stiles feels really stupid. 

“Well sometimes normal people forget about stuff like that yeah.” He answers skeptically. Laura gives him a puzzled expression. 

“Derek would you mind waiting for me at your car?” She asks. Derek nods and walks off to the parking lot. 

“Come with me for a walk Stiles.” Laura says.

 

When they’re far enough away from any crowds she starts talking again. “What’s going on Stiles,” and when he doesn’t answer her she continues talking. 

“I’ve known you for years I know when something is going on, so tell me.” Stiles looks around doubtfully and then everything is just too much and he loses control of everything. 

“It’s not just you leaving suddenly Laura, it’s also you dumping a major secret on me and then leaving, I didn’t even know where you were going!” She looks away guiltily but Stiles continues talking. 

“And then I have to go through another episode of someone leaving me behind.” She looks like she’s about to say something but Stiles continues talking before she can interrupt him. 

“Don’t tell me you were going to come back anyways because when you left you sure as hell didn’t look like you were sure about anything. So you’re gone and then I’m all alone and do you know how tough it is for me? To make new friends? Ever since my mother has died it has been impossible for me, and you know that! And when I finally do make a new friend he gets a girlfriend and then I’ve also lost him and…” He trembles and feels miserable for giving Laura the blame for everything. 

“You just left…” He feels defeated and empty, and is on the edge of crying. Laura pulls him into a hug and keeps whispering 

“I’m so sorry Stiles… I’m so sorry” while trying to comfort him further.  
They stay like that until Stiles calms down.

 

When they’re walking back towards the parking lot Laura says, “I’m really sorry Stiles, and I’ll try to make it up to you, I swear.” Stiles nods and walks towards his Jeep (which is parked next to Derek’s car) he nods at Derek and gets in his car. When he pulls away he sees Laura getting in the Camaro and Derek giving him a sympathizing look. Wait… Were they in werewolf-hearing distance when Stiles was talking to Laura?


	6. Chapter 6

Stiles is awoken from his restless sleep by someone who’s apparently cursing at his window… Wait what?   
Stiles tries not to move and opens his eyes. It’s still mostly dark in his room so he doesn’t see much. He tries to reach for his baseball bat underneath his bed but with being all tangled up in his sheets he ends up on the ground.   
The person by the window freezes and so does Stiles. 

“Stiles?” Stiles lets go of his breath in relief. 

“Damn Derek I thought you were a burglar or something, you scared the crap out of me.” He replies. He tries to untangle himself from his sheets and sits back on his bed. When he realizes that he’s only wearing his pajama pants he tangles himself back into his blankets again, and wears it like a cape. Derek gives him an amusing look.

“So what are you doing here... -” Stiles says looking at his alarm clock “at 5 am in the morning?” Derek clears his throat and sits down by Stiles’ desk. The little bit of light that comes through Stiles’ window is just enough for Stiles to see the outlines of his face.

“I was just wondering if you were okay.” Derek looks around awkwardly, “With everything that happened today.”   
Stiles huffs “You mean with me blaming everything on Laura.” Derek nods. Stiles feels anxious about the thought that Derek heard everything he told Laura. It wasn’t one of his most remarkable moments.

“So you did hear that conversation.” Stiles states. “Must be so useful to have werewolf hearing.”   
He looks down and grabs a sweatshirt lying on his floor. After he pulls it over his head he stands up and walks towards his door. Just when he’s about to turn on his lights he hears the window being opened again. When he turns around Derek is gone. 

“Never mind having a conversation then, Mr Sourwolf.”

 

The next week Laura’s back at school. In the beginning it’s kind of awkward, because Stiles now sits with Scott and Allison. But since they’re still being all couple-y together he decides to just sit with Laura again like they used to. They pick up the old conversations which they used to have and Stiles is really happy that she’s back. When he walks into English Scott asks him, “hey dude why aren’t you sitting with us anymore?” 

“Well probably because you and Allison are always all over each other and I do not have to see that while I’m eating my lunch.” He replies showing his hands while putting them in the air.

“Sorry man, it’s just really crazy at the moment. I love her so much. But you could’ve said that it was bothering you. Who are you sitting with now anyways?” Stiles had totally forgotten that Laura and Scott never have met. That should change he thinks, starting to make a list in his head with possible things that they could all do together.

“With Laura.”   
Scott looks shocked at him. “Isn’t that like Derek’s sister?” He asks alarmed, panic noticeable in his voice. 

“Yeah it’s Derek’s sister, why?” Stiles gives Scott a wondering look. 

“Because I’ve seen you hanging out with Derek these last few days. I don’t understand why though, that guy is a jerk." 

"You just don't know him," Stiles says, "maybe you should first get to know somebody before judging them because of things you've heard from other people." Stiles' comment comes out snarkier than he had meant to, he guesses that it's just because he's so sick of people judging each other without getting to know them first.

"Okay man, sorry." Scott mumbles, and before they can continue their conversation the class starts. The day basically exists of boring lessons before Stiles is finally free. He's got a deal with Laura that they'd catch up on playing Halo-4 this week after school, so he waits for her after the last bell rings.

 

When she finally arrives Stiles is freezing. 

"Come on, time to get this party started!" He exclaims before quickly walking towards his Jeep.   
It feels really good to talk and play videogames with Laura, he really missed her. However, he didn't miss that she's better than him in all his videogames, which makes him oddly frustrated. He now understands why Scott couldn't take it anymore after Stiles beat him too often. Thinking about Scott brings up Stiles' memory of introducing Scott and Laura to each other.

 

"Hey Laura," Stiles asks on Friday night while getting beaten, again, in Assassins’ Creed. "Would you like to meet Scott sometime?" 

"Sure, he's the one dating that Argent girl, right?" 

"Allison, yeah." After that it stays silent and they continue to play, when Stiles gets curious again and starts asking more questions. 

"Kate is also an Argent right?" He asks while pausing the game and seeing Laura nod. 

"So are they like sisters or something?" He tries to make up the math in his head, Kate is definitely much older than Allison, no way that they’re sisters.

"No, Kate is her aunt." Stiles hums and continues the game. 

"But that would make her like really old, right?" He knows he’s getting into dangerous territory, talking about people that he doesn’t know. "Yeah, she's about 23 I think" Stiles is surprised because how would Laura ever agree to Derek's relationship with Kate when they've got such a big age difference between each other. He decides not to get himself in the middle of it, it's Derek's story to tell and not his.

 

Another week of school and Stiles is seriously getting pissed at his teachers, especially Mr Harris. 

“Dad?” Stiles asks out loud during his break in the cafeteria, nobody gives him any attention so he walks towards the doors. His dad's sheriff patrol car just parked outside the school in the parking lot, and when Stiles sees that it's indeed his dad that's stepping out of the car he knows that something must be wrong. When he's outside he walks towards his dad. "Dad? What are you doing here? Is there something wrong?"

"Hey kid, I'm not here for you, I'm still on duty." His dad looks around him like he’s looking for someone.

"Who are you looking for?" Stiles asks, his curiosity getting the better of him, as always. 

"I'm looking for Laura and Derek Hale, do you know where I can find them?" Stiles is worried now. 

"Uhm yeah, Laura has her next class in room 483 and Derek, uhm I have no idea where he would be but I bet   
that Laura would know when you find her."

"Thanks kid." His dad replies and starts walking into the school. Some students are giving them odd glances as Stiles continues to follow his dad into the school.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"Nothing meant for your ears, I'll see you tonight." Just like that his dad walks off. Stiles waits for a while before getting the feeling that he's probably going to be late for his next class, on arriving to his classroom he is indeed late and it just happens to be Harris' class. Just his luck...

 

Finally out of detention Stiles walks towards his car when his mobile phone rings. The caller ID says it's Derek but that can't be right. Derek never calls him. He decides to answer the call anyway. 

"Derek?" he asks, unsure of what to expect from this call. 

"Stiles, you need to come to our house, like right now." Derek exclaims. "Why? What's going on?" He asks while he gets into his Jeep. 

"Just come quickly, please." Derek sounds exhausted. Derek never says please, and Stiles starts to worry. 

"I'm on my way" he says while starting his Jeep and he leaves the school parking lot behind him. The call ends.

 

On his way towards the Hale house the sound of sirens gets louder. He feels like something bad has just happened and drives faster. The driveway through the woods and to the Hale house is loaded with ambulances, police cars and as Stiles gets closer to the house, also fire trucks. The smoke is overwhelming as he reaches the house and panic rises through his whole body. It's literally chaos, everybody running in a different direction, but Stiles barely notices as he sees that the Hale house is on fire. On fire! Not just a small ‘oh the oven was still on whoops’ but a major ‘a bomb just fell on my house’ fire. Trying to walk past all the people without getting run over he only had one task at hand, to find Laura and Derek. Panic was just about to take over his breathing when he finally spotted them. 

“Laura.”  
He got her name out in a whisper, knowing she'd hear him anyways. Laura turns with tears in her eyes and Stiles is overwhelmed as he hugs her. Trying to comfort and calm Laura down as much as he could he opens his eyes again, realizing that he also started to cry. He looks at Derek only to see that Derek is already staring at him.

"What happened?" Stiles asks, barely getting the words out of his mouth. Laura hugs him tighter and starts to cry louder again, he responds by making shush sounds, to try and calm her down again.

"Someone set the house on fire." Derek replies numbly to his question. Stiles is confused, why would anyone set a house on fire, and more specifically why would anyone set the Hale house on fire? As far as he knows the Hale family is a perfectly fine family without problems and they even live on the outskirts of town, in the middle of the woods. Why would anyone set their house on fire. The only possible reason suddenly comes to his mind. There probably would be something like werewolf hunters when there was something like werewolves, right? He looks up at Derek again and he suddenly has a feeling that he understands why he looks guilty. He doesn't know why the thought would ever make sense, but somehow it does. Derek looks him in the eyes again. 

“I need to go-.” Derek looks around alertly, “and take care of something. Will you take care of her?”   
Stiles nods, understanding exactly what was going on. He noticed Laura shifting in his arms but he just responded by hugging her tighter again. When he looks up, Derek is gone, a faint howling sound in the distance to which Laura replies by making the sound of a kicked puppy.   
Stiles grabs her by the hand.

"Come on let's go" She doesn’t reply so he just pulls gently at her hand, making sure they won't be in anybody's way while they make their way over to Stiles' Jeep. He gets the passenger door open for her and lifts her gently inside, her body numb, closing the door and walking towards the driver seat. Starting the engine of his car he gives one last glance at the Hale house before driving off. The fire is almost out, but there is barely anything left to be called a house.


	7. Chapter 7

Carrying Laura’s body into his bedroom probably wasn’t a good idea, at least if that was what Stiles’ muscle aches came from. Laura was sound asleep on his bed while Stiles pulled of her shoes and put the comforter down on her. His whole room smelled like fire and that was alarming. While Laura was asleep on his bed he decided to take a shower and finish some of his homework. Halfway through his chemistry homework he fell asleep too.

 

Waking up to his cell phone ringing, he was lightly disoriented only to realise he fell asleep on his desk and now had a paper press on his face, which just made him so much more attractive. Looking around he saw that Laura was still asleep, so he tried to answer his phone as soon as possible to make sure she wouldn’t be woken up by his ringtone. As he answered the phone he walked downstairs to also make some breakfast while talking to the person whom was calling him on the phone.

“Hello?” Stiles’ voice sounded like he hasn’t spoken in years, maybe he inhaled more smoke then he had thought yesterday.

“Stiles, how’s Laura doing?” Stiles immediately recognized the voice as Derek’s.

“She’s okay I guess, she’s asleep now.” He hesitated before deciding that ‘what the hell,’ might as well go for it. 

“How are you doing Derek?” He didn’t get a reply, so he continued talking. 

“You’ll be okay, it will all be okay.” He was trying to comfort him but as the words left his mouth he knew he made a mistake.

“It will all be okay?” Derek almost yelled back into the phone. “My family is dead Stiles, I only have Laura and everybody else is dead, they’re all gone.” The urgent tone of his sentence got smaller near the end and Stiles could hear the faint sound of sniffling.

“Derek, come pay Laura a visit, she will need you when she wakes up. And the worst thing right now is either of you two being alone.” Stiles stood in his kitchen realizing that the conversation had taken so much of his concentration, that he hadn’t started making breakfast yet. 

“I’ll make you some breakfast and you can have a shower here too, please Derek.” Stiles was sincerely worried. If Derek would continue to stay out in the woods Stiles wouldn’t know if Derek would ever be okay again.  
It was quiet for a while on the other side of the line until Derek finally replied. 

“Okay, I’ll be there in five.” And hung up. Stiles put his phone on the coffee table walking towards the cabinets in the kitchen and getting out the stuff he would need to make breakfast for three persons. Halfway through making breakfast the doorbell rang and Stiles opened the door.

“I’m glad you came, Derek.” He admitted, “Laura’s sleeping in my room, up the stair and the first room to the right.” Derek nodded at him and disappeared up the stairs. Stiles let go of his breath, only to realise he had been holding it, and continued making breakfast. Just when he finished he could hear them coming down the stairs, while quietly talking to each other. 

“Morning.” Laura mumbled before sitting down with Derek next to her. Stiles set their plates in front of them and then sits down himself. He looks from Laura to Derek, both of their faces filled with sadness and hurt. Stiles reckoned that this would be a good moment in his life to keep quiet for a while, and ate his breakfast in silence. 

 

When they finished eating Laura went upstairs to take a shower and Stiles started to clean the dishes, because   
the ones from the day before weren't clean yet. Derek eventually helped out by drying them. 

"Tonight is the full moon." Derek said matter-of-factly. 

"So?" Stiles asked continuing to clean a very dirty dish. 

"So it will be the first full moon for Laura as an alpha." Oh... now he felt stupid. He finished washing the dishes and then turned to look at Derek, who was still busy cleaning. 

"So what does that mean, what do I need to do?" He asks while leaning on the counter and getting his sleeve   
wet, which earned him a scowl from Derek. 

"It means that she will have more power to control, especially with having such a small pack, just me and Laura. She will be stronger and she will most definitely lose control."

"Jeez Derek, have some faith in me will you" Laura remarked from behind them, and again Stiles wondered whatever happened to the keen werewolf senses of Derek. 

"I do have faith in you, I'm simply just stating the facts here Laura, it'll be your first Alpha shift, which will not only be more crucial but will also make sure that the ability of recognizing friend from foe will be lost." Derek finished drying the dishes and turned to look at Laura, also giving her a scowl. 

"I exercised with dad and Peter last month, I'm sure I will be just fine." At the mention of their names Derek's scowl changed from a scowl towards a frown again. 

"We still should make the necessary measurements though." He says, walking out of the kitchen towards the living room. Stiles follows him and his eye lands on a half full bottle of Jack Daniel's on the coffee table, next to his phone, odd that he didn't see that earlier. He puts the bottle away and decides that while Laura and Derek are discussing all werewolvy things he should call his dad and inform him about them staying over.   
He grabs his phone after putting the alcohol away in it's belonging cabinet, and goes outside to call his dad. The weather is beautiful, but it’s noticeable that winter is coming.  
After one single ring his dad has already picked up the phone. 

“Stiles, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing dad, just came to inform you that when you come home you shouldn’t get all freaked out, because there are some other people in your house.”

“And why’s that?”

“Uhm, Laura and Derek are staying over.” Stiles says. Wondering if it was even a good idea to tell his dad this.

“Well it’s fine for now, I will be making long shifts in the upcoming days anyways.” Looks like his dad was one of the Sheriff’s working on the case about the Hale house fire.

“Why?” Stiles asked, acting as if he wouldn’t know why his dad would ever overwork himself.

“The fire didn’t happen as an accident, someone set the house on fire, we’re momentarily trying to find out who it was and why.”

“Do you have any suspects yet?” Stiles was hoping that his dad would not spare any details.

“I’m not going to share that with you Stiles, take care of them, they just lost their whole family.” Well, guess his dad wasn’t in the sharing-mood.

“They’ve still got each other dad.”

“Yeah… Call me when you need anything son.”

“Okay, bye dad.”

After ending the call Stiles walks back inside to see Laura and Derek quietly sitting on the couch, with just enough space between each other for Stiles to sit between them.

“So guys, what’s the plan?” He asks, looking from left to right and then from right back to left only to decide that if he kept doing that he’d get dizzy.

“We are going to have to drive to somewhere where the smell of our burnt out house isn’t – “

“You can still smell that?” Stiles interrupted, curious about it because he did barely know anything about a werewolf’s abilities.

“Yeah we can. We are going to have to drive to another place where it’s abandoned. Where we will have a smaller chance to hurt somebody.” Derek looks at Laura and Stiles notices that Laura looks away like she is disagreeing over every word Derek would ever say again.

“Okay, let's go then." Stiles almost yelled, standing up and walking, as fast as he could, towards his Jeep.

 

When they finally arrived at a random place in the woods around some town that was not in Beacon Hills, Laura got out of the car, but Derek didn’t. It wasn't very nice, the three of them being obligated to ride together in Stiles' Jeep towards this wolf-out-point. But who knew where Derek's Camaro would be at the moment. Probably still parked in front of the burnt down Hale house, which made it clear why Derek didn't want to get it. Laura continued to walk into the woods, like she didn't notice that they still were in the car.

"You probably should return to Beacon Hills, because if you stay here it probably won't be safe." It sounds like a lame excuse from Derek, but Stiles nods anyway.

"How will you guys get back to Beacon Hills?" Stiles asks, looking to his right to see Derek staring into the distance, where there was nothing to see. But then again, Stiles knew very little about all those werewolf abilities.

"Oh we'll get back. Stay inside tonight Stiles." And Derek opened the door. Pausing in the middle of getting out of the car he says, "Thanks for the ride." And just like that he’s slamming Stiles' Jeep passenger’s door closed, a little too hard for Stiles' liking, and disappears while following the path that Laura had gone down just a few minutes ago.  
Stiles clears his throat and starts the Jeep back up again, returning to Beacon Hills.

 

On arriving home, it was just starting to get dark. After finishing his dinner the full moon is visible in the sky, and when he just finished another level of Candy Crush on his phone, the street lights were on. Deciding to go to bed early, which he did because he had school the next day and not because he had nothing to do or anything, he got changed into his pyjama pants and a random shirt which was, just like the rest of his clothes, too big for him. As he laid in his bed he could hear the sound of howling in the distance, at least that was what he imagined it could be.

 

He was awoken by a light tapping sound on his window. His alarm clock made clear that it was just past midnight, so far for getting enough sleep before school. He got up and opened his window to reveal, oh what a surprise, Derek.

"Where's Laura?" Stiles asks as Derek climbs into his room, leaving muddy footprints on his bedroom floor.

"She's still out there, far enough from Beacon Hills to be a danger to anyone." Derek took a seat in the chair by his desk and looked down at the muddy footprints he had left behind.

"So what are you doing here?" Derek looks up from the floor with a guilty expression, and damn it he wasn't allowed to have such a facial expression because it made Stiles rethink everything in his whole life.

"I was done shifting." He said a matter-of-factly. Spinning around in Stiles' chair.

"Well I'm going back to bed Mr. Sourwolf, make yourself at home." He got a mumble back as reply and pulled himself back under his covers again. When he was just about to drift off to sleep Derek started talking again, this time in a low whisper. But it was quiet enough in the rest of his house for Stiles to hear Derek just fine.

"It was Kate." Stiles turns around in his bed, facing Derek and asking "What was Kate?"  
He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and sits up little bit in his bed. 

“She set the house on fire, with my family inside.” Derek’s voice sounds grave. Which is logical, because his whole family had just been murdered.

“I know.” He barely got the reply out of his mouth and the shocked glance that Derek gave him made him worry that he'd made the wrong choice.

“You.... you what?” Derek asks, confusion and anger in his voice.

“I figured it was Kate, she's a werewolf hunter right?” He asks while looking back at Derek, seeing him nod in confirmation.

“So what's the story, why did she do it?” Stiles asks, realizing that it was stupid of him to begin this conversation with Derek around this time.

“Maybe because she's a hunter.” It came out as a snarl and it startled Stiles a bit, well maybe it was the wrong question to ask.

“I meant, why would she do that to you when you guys were dating and stuff…”

"Because she is a manipulative lying bitch" The hate radiating from the words is enough for Stiles to stop asking questions, wanting to remain in one piece.  
Getting back onto his lying position Stiles decided to drop it and go back to sleep. Derek, again, talked just when Stiles was almost asleep. The guy had like the worst timing in the world, which he would discuss with him on another night when there wasn't a full moon in the sky.

"She was only acting to... She was only acting like she loved me. But it turned out to all be a lie." Stiles turns back around in his bed again, facing Derek again, and waits patiently for Derek to continue the story.

"She was lying to me to get information about my family, about my dad’s pack." Derek's face shifted into an expression filled with disgust. 

"No wonder that she wasn't surprised when I told her about being a werewolf, I should have known." The guilt in Derek's voice hits Stiles like a bullet in his heart. He sits back up again. 

"Derek, this isn't your fault, there's no way you could've known." Derek gets a grumpy expression on his face, and Stiles makes a pact with himself to seriously stop interrupting him ever again. It stays quiet for a while before Derek, finally continues his story. 

"She found out the exact moment that everybody of my family would be home. Huh, well found out. I basically told her…" It was a very sarcastic laugh he gave after saying that. 

"If the Sheriff hadn't made us late for dinner we would have been inside that house. She would have gotten away with this, but I'm not letting this go until she's dead. Until her whole family is dead." Derek's knuckles turn white because of the pressure Derek is putting on them and Stiles decides to break his own pact for, hopefully, good measurements. "Derek calm down." He gets a glare in return, and seriously were they back towards this whole glaring and looking angry and being terrified again? 

"You don't know for sure if the whole Argent family was part of this plan." Stiles tries, hopefully calming Derek down at least a little bit.

"You're right, they probably weren't, but that doesn't make them not guilty. The whole family exists of hunters Stiles, werewolf hunters! What do you think they'll do when they find out that Laura and I escaped the fire? They'll probably go after us, even when they didn't participate in the fire. Hunting has been in their family for ages, it's in their blood." Derek huffs and the blood flow returns to his hand, as the anger leaves him just a little bit. Stiles has no idea what to do about this, so he goes for the safest option, postpone the problem until it would eventually just go away. 

"Let's just wait for tomorrow okay, when Laura's back we can talk about this and make plans and stuff, but first I need to rest. First you need rest."  
Derek didn't look him in the eyes. 

"Okay?" Stiles asks, hopeful for a good reaction, unsure about if he'd gone too far this time. 

"Yeah okay." It didn't sound too much as acceptance, but it was enough for Stiles. This time he didn't get woken up when he was just about to drift off to sleep, and it being the middle of the night, he fell asleep soon enough.


	8. Chapter 8

As the days of boring lessons return Stiles gets back into his normal schedule again. At school he tries to share the free periods with Scott and Laura, since they aren't getting along very much. Probably because Scott is a judging kind of guy sometimes. That doesn't really matter though because sharing his free time between Laura and Scott is keeping his mind occupied, and what is better than that. It’s better than anything he could ask for. 

 

Laura and Derek still haven't gotten an own place to stay so they continue to use Stiles' couch in the living room and the bed in the guest bedroom. He eats breakfast with Laura and they drive to school together in Stiles' jeep. Where Derek is going from early in the morning until dinner time, Stiles has no idea. But he decides not to interfere, because he likes his own face just as it is now. In the weekends Laura and Derek go out hiking in the woods and Stiles stays indoors with sometimes visits from Scott. Everything is going great, but even Stiles knows that the way that everything is now, certainly isn't a permanent solution. Maybe that's why it doesn't really surprise him when Laura tells him that she and Derek are going to live in New York, without knowing for how long.

 

"I'll call you every night okay?" Laura clarifies. 

"Probably not on any nights of the full moon though." Stiles tries to joke around, because even though he saw it coming it still hurts and even worse is that now Derek's also going away so he won't be able to lean on him either.

"So tell me again why this is necessary?" Stiles asks Laura, needing the information to ensure himself that they aren't going away because of him. Laura doesn't answer though, Derek does. 

"Because it isn't safe here anymore, if the hunters know that we're still alive they'll come looking for us and we'll lead them straight to you and your father, Stiles." Stiles wants to interrupt him with saying that he can take great care of himself but Derek continues. 

"Also, Laura needs a place far away from Beacon Hills at the moment to make sure that she'll complete her alpha transformation without hurting anybody." And okay, maybe it wasn't an entirely good idea to keep a werewolf, who has just become an alpha and who has keen smelling senses, in the town in which her house and her family burned down. Also, Derek really needs to keep his mind off of it as much as possible, because with his guilt and anger, Stiles is sure that he'd kill just anyone that would stand in his way towards his revenge.  
Stiles nods and helps them pack up all the stuff that they've bought in the last month, because all their stuff had burned down in the fire. 

 

When they're almost done with putting everything into Derek's Camaro, Stiles' dad just pulls up onto the drive-way.

"Going somewhere?" Stiles' dad asks while watching as Derek puts the last box into the backseat of his car. Stiles is just about to answer the question when Derek's back and answers for him - seriously since when did Derek start talking so much? 

"Laura and I have decided to go to New York." His dad's eyes widen in surprise. 

"Wow, New York is something entirely different from Beacon Hills. Why have you two decided to go there? It's also very far away from Beacon Hills." His dad states, sending a glance in Stiles' direction. Laura answers the Sheriff's question as Derek disappears back into the house again, probably to get his jacket. 

"Well Sheriff, it's kind of hard for us to stay here at the moment. But we'll sure visit ... -" Stiles also walks into the house, not interested in the on going conversation between his dad and Laura, as he walks inside he spots Derek on the couch in the living room. 

"Hey." He says as he takes a seat next to Derek. He notices him staring and tries to figure out what exactly he's staring at, which is why he gets startled as Derek turns his whole body towards him and suddenly talks. "I'm sorry." Stiles tries to calm himself down again but looks at him wondering. 

"What are you sorry about?" Derek huffs and sits straight again, looking into the distance again. 

"I'm sorry that Laura is leaving you behind again, and it's kind of my fault." Stiles can't help but be shocked. 

"Derek, I told you before, it's not your fault." Stiles tries not to shout, because his dad and Laura are still outside and he doesn't want them to interrupt this conversation (even though Laura is most likely already overhearing them with her super hearing.) 

"You've got to stop blaming yourself." Derek just sits numbly and doesn't make a sound. 

"Derek" Stiles almost whispers. "Talk to me." Derek lets out a deep sigh, and when Stiles puts his hand on his shoulder he finally - finally – starts to tell the story. 

"It's just.. If I hadn't been involved with Kate and if I would've just ignored her this all would never have happened. My house would still be here, my family would still be here and we wouldn't have to leave. So yeah... it is all my fault. And the worst thing is, I can't fix it. I can't go back in time and change everything. I can't do anything about it even revenge wouldn't bring them back, nothing can bring them back." Stiles doesn't know how to react, so he does something without thinking about it - and really when does he ever think about something before doing something stupid. He pulls Derek into a hug. At first Derek doesn't respond to the hug and Stiles is almost afraid of some severely physical pains, but before his mind can go into his vividly and scary thoughts, Derek hugs him back around his waist. Stiles doesn't know if Derek is crying, but he isn't shaking or making crying sounds. Which makes it all the better that he is hugging him back. 

"It will be okay. To be honest, it will never go away," Stiles should know, he speaks from experience. "But it does eventually get better." They sit like that for a while longer, Derek's head against Stiles' chest while Derek's hands are around Stiles waist and Stiles' hands are in Derek's hair and on his back. Suddenly Derek pulls away and Stiles almost wonders if he did something wrong, but then Stiles hears his dad and Laura coming inside, and yeah, werewolf hearing can be very useful sometimes. He pushes himself off of the couch and after giving Derek a smile which Derek softly returns he walks into the kitchen.

 

"Hey son, I've invited them for a final meal here before they'll go to New York, is that okay with you?" His dad asks him while he also walks into the kitchen. 

"Yeah sure," Stiles replies while sparing a look at the clock. 

"I better start making some dinner then huh." His dad laughs and gives him a friendly slap on his shoulder. As his dad walks out of the room, Stiles starts preparing dinner for four.

 

Dinner isn't as awkward as Stiles thought it would be, even though there are some touchy subjects which they're trying to stay away from during any conversation. His dad is actually more broken up about them leaving then Stiles had thought. Guess losing your whole family gives you a lot of sympathy from people who would normally just simply hate your guts. But seriously, before dinner has even started, his dad and Derek already have an ongoing conversation about cars and at the end of dinner they've sort of become something close to friends. Too bad they're leaving though.

 

Saying goodbye isn't easy for Stiles, saying goodbye is never easy for anyone. But eventually Derek's Camaro leaves the driveway and Stiles is left waving at it until he can't hear -nor see- it anymore. He stays outside, numb and overwhelmed by all his emotions, until his dad puts a blanket around his shoulders and softly pulls him inside the house, closing the door behind him.

 

Stiles gets back in his usual daily business sooner then he'd thought. Scott is a great help though. Just when Laura -and Derek- left, Allison and Scott were going through a rough patch and decided not to see each other for a while. Which was great in Stiles' case. Because now Stiles needed a hundred percent Scott time and Scott needed a hundred percent Stiles time. Their gaming sessions started again, but it was too bad that now Scott was better at them and harder to beat.

 

The peace didn't last for long though, the reports of sudden animal killings around Beacon Hills returned and he didn't even see his dad's face anymore- He understood it though, work's important... But some nights he'd just be alone with an awful silence surrounding him. He got his hands on one of a police officer's walkie-talkie and was tracking along with their coordinates to figure out that the killings were getting closer.

 

The first rumour was something about the return of a mountain lion. But Stiles knew better, the only question was, why would they return without letting him know. He was hurt and so he decided to check out the woods. Scott just had a date with Allison - since a long time of a break between each other - so Stiles decided to check it out by himself. He visits all the places of the resent killings but doesn't find any signs of Laura or Derek's return and Stiles can't help but feel clueless and disappointed.

 

Life is oddly boring without any scary – werewolf - things happening. School is boring, talking every break to the same people is boring, and being home alone almost every day is boring. He does his groceries – because his dad hasn’t got the time. He makes his homework and hands it in, in time. He continues to play video games even when Scott isn’t there, because he can’t take losing any longer. Basically, nothing really happens. Just a normal teenage life.

 

Laura does call him sometimes though. It are short calls because they’re both touchy on different subjects, and they don’t want to fight simply because of choosing the wrong topic. Mostly the calls are just to ask each other ‘how are you’ and ‘what have you been up to lately’. Stiles never gets around to asks how the alpha transformation is going, or how the second full moon went. Every time he comes close to that subject she has an excuse to end the call.   
He still has – now and then – contact with Derek. Mostly it exists of texts about what Laura doesn’t want to talk about to him. At first Derek is persistent to tell anything that Laura herself doesn’t want to tell him, but after sending a little too much texts to Derek, Derek does eventually tell. Apparently the alpha transition has been hard on Laura, she can hardly control herself, probably because she doesn’t have an anchor anymore, Derek said. And it’s also a problem that she doesn’t want to talk about it to Derek either. After Stiles realises that everything isn’t going so well for them either, he decides to leave them alone for a while. He doesn’t call and he doesn’t text Derek. It’s hard on him…

 

Friday is the worst day. Worst classes, and a boring weekend ahead. Stiles needs to do groceries after school, so he can’t hang out and everything is just going perfect already – not… As he finally has all his groceries together – with throwing some things off the racks completely by accident and the shop owner looking pissed at him the whole time – he puts them all in his Jeep. Just when he is about to pull away, a familiar figure walks on the pavement just down the road by the shop from which he just came. Before he even registers what he’s doing, he’s getting out of the Jeep and he’s running towards that figure, calling out a simple name which he hasn’t said out loud for too long.

“Derek!” He calls and crosses the street towards the figure that turns around, it is indeed Derek. Stiles lets out a sigh of relief, he hasn’t talked to him for over a half year, he hasn’t seen his face for longer. But the look on Derek’s face makes him take in another breath and hold it.

“Have you seen my sister?” Derek asks. Stiles is genuinely worried.


	9. Chapter 9

"What do you mean 'have you seen my sister'?" Stiles exclaimed loudly - maybe a little bit too loud since they were still standing in front of the shop. Stiles pulls Derek's sleeve and they walk towards Stiles' Jeep, which is still parked in the parking lot across the shop and still has his groceries in it.

"You were the one that went to New York with her, how am I supposed to know where she is?" Stiles asks, while pushing Derek in the passenger’s seat of his car and then walking around the Jeep and sitting down himself, he doesn't start the car yet.

"Yeah well... She went back just about a week ago." Stiles doesn't know how to feel. He barely had contact with her after she left but after a while they didn't have any contact at all anymore. 

"Why was she going back?" Stiles asks, before he starts the car he spares a glance at Derek, but he’s out of it.

"I don't know, she thought that something was wrong with all these animal killings getting closer to Beacon Hills." Stiles huffs and turns the corner to his street. His dad's car isn't in front of the house -surprise.

"Will you help me get these groceries out?" He asks while getting out of the car and grabbing the first bag out of the trunk. Derek also grabs a bag so Stiles considers that as an agreement to help him get the groceries inside.

After finally all the groceries are either in the refrigerator or in one of the cabinets Stiles sits down in one of the chairs at the kitchen table and turns around to look at Derek - who is still standing in the kitchen.

"Will you tell me the whole story now?" Hopefully Derek will tell him everything he needed to know because he’s seriously worried about Laura. What if something seriously bad has happened? Derek nods in reply and takes a seat next to him.

"When we arrived in New York everything was all right -except for the nightmares and the grieving- but when the first full moon came around things changed, Laura changed. Everything went smoothly but still when she transformed back the next day she wouldn't talk to me - you should know, we had still contact then," and okay that made Stiles feel guilty. "First I thought that maybe it was just because the transformation made her grieving emotions stronger, but it went on for over an week. After that she went back to normal again, except for the nights of the full moon. The last full moon was last week and everything went great and she was just normal again but then two days later she was gone." Derek lets out a sight but continues. 

"Maybe she was staying with friends - because she made some in the time that we were staying in New York, she even managed to get a job - but the ones that I knew she was friends with hadn't heard from her. Then I thought that maybe she just needed some time away, when four days passed by since her disappearance I figured something was up. I tried to follow her scent, it was very faint since in the days that I had waited for her it had rained. But I still managed to find out that it was leading south, and the only place that made sense for her to come to, was Beacon Hills. So that's why I'm here." Stiles lets out a sigh. 

"Derek that's quite a story. But what was your plan on finding her if she would have been in Beacon Hills here somewhere?"

"I was kind of hoping that she would be with you, and when I didn't find you at your house I decided to go into the city to maybe pick up on a more clearer scent..."  
Stiles hmm-s. "But she isn't with me so what's the next step to find her?" Stiles turns around in his chair to avoid the conversation becoming awkward. He is really getting worried about Laura, but making it obvious will only make it worse for both of them.

"I was really hoping that she'd be with you, since the other place that would make sense for her to be would be our old house." And yup, spinning around in his chair is nothing compared to the turning of the conversation, it has become uneasy anyway.

"Shit" Stiles mumbles and Derek hums in agreement.

"Okay uhm.. Let me think about this " Stiles says to no one in particular. "What if I'll go to your house, look for Laura. This way you won't have to go." Derek sends a doubting glare towards Stiles but he simply ignores it.

"Okay so I'll go there now and uhm I'll be back as soon as possible. " While he grabs his phone and car keys he turns around to say, 

"You can stay here if you want," and then walks out the door.

 

The driveway to the Hale house is barely noticeable - because of no one having to go there now that it’s barely even an house. Bushes are overgrown and surrounded the road with wilderness. Luckily Stiles knows where to go, otherwise he would have certainly gotten lost. When he finally arrives at the house it is - again - a shock to him how this could have ever happened - the Hale house used to be really beautiful - but then again... werewolf hunters... and it made a little bit of sense again. Still, this should never have happened and only just seeing the house makes Stiles feel uncomfortable and furious. He looks past the doorway into the house and sees that it’s not save to enter because it would probably collapse on him if he would go inside. He walks around the house but doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary - except for the burned down house but yeah... 

"Laura?" He yells, hopefully she would be here somewhere, otherwise Stiles didn't know where else she could be. 

"Laura!" He yells again. He’s standing with his back towards the woods and hears the sound of leaves crumbling. He turns around - fast - but doesn't see anything. That's how he spends like an hour at the house, he walks on the border between the woods and the house, calling out Laura's name, hoping for a reply of any sort. But there's nothing there, she isn't there. He has to get himself together before he walks back towards his Jeep and returns home.

 

"She must be around here somewhere!" Derek exclaims, it is clear that he is on the edge of giving up. The same is going on with Stiles, but then he gets a marvellous idea. 

"Maybe my dad will know something, he's the Sheriff maybe he would have heard something." Derek doesn't look convinced. 

"Seriously Derek, if anyone would know what's been going on in Beacon Hills, it's him." 

"Okay" Derek still doesn't sound convinced about his idea, but honestly Stiles doesn't care. 

"I'll go to his office to ask him, since he's a tragedy with picking up his phone while working. If he knows anything I'll call you, okay?" Derek nods - and seriously Stiles is getting sick of his non-verbal way of communicating, but he does have a very valid excuse for it. 

"Where are you going?" He asks Derek, as Derek gets up and walks towards the door. 

"I'm going into the woods, maybe I'll be able to pick up a scent there." The woods in Beacon Hills are basically around the Hale house, so Stiles is really not suspecting that reply. 

"Are you sure?" He asks, and Derek nods - again with the non-verbal way of communicating - before he walks out the door. Stiles is overwhelmed with worry. Worry for Derek - because he is going into the woods alone and even though he’s a werewolf, the hunters also burned down a house full of them without problem. Worry for Laura - because he has no idea what happened to her and where she is. Even worry about his dad, since he hasn't seen him for a while and the Sheriff is working way too hard.

 

On arriving at the woods around the Hale house - he had to leave his car at home since for some sort of reason it wouldn't start when he wanted to go here - and now Stiles has no idea where to find Derek. He knows he should have just called, but he doesn't feel good about Derek being all on his own, especially around his old and burned down house. 

"Derek?" he calls out into the nothingness, it's getting dark so Stiles hopes to get this over with rather soon then later. He hears the snapping of a twig behind him and turns around. As he walks further into the forest he hears Derek replying to him.

"Stiles? I thought you would call?" Derek sounds surprised and walks into the light so Stiles can see him better. 

"Yeah that was the plan, but I decided to go looking for you instead."

"Why?" Derek asks as he continues to walk further into the woods.

"Well, I- I just worry about you, you know? Nothing is going really well for you at the moment..." He is sure that taking the conversation this way is not a great idea, so he stops talking for a change.

"Did your dad know anything about Laura?" Derek asks. Stiles looks down. 

"Nah, he did know about the animal killings coming closer to Beacon Hills, but he hasn't heard anything about Laura Hale being seen anywhere. And I'm pretty sure that in a small town like this when she would be spotted everybody would know in five minutes about her return."  
Derek growled. "Sorry," Stiles says while putting his palms up in the air. "Anyways, he did invite you to stay at our place though, so you won't have to stay in the woods or anything."  
Derek gives him a sarcastic glance "I wasn't planning on sleeping in the woods Stiles. I would have at least broken into someone’s house to sleep there."   
And hey... Derek is joking around. Stiles smiles and tugs on Derek's sleeve, "where are we going anyways?"

"I picked up a faint smell of Laura going this way, it's an old trail but it's better than nothing." Stiles nods and waits for Derek to pick up the pace again, then he simply follows besides him. 

"Derek?" Stiles asks, Derek replies with a hum as for Stiles to continue talking. 

"Please find her. We must find her..." Stiles doesn't feel good about saying it, but he just wants his best friend back. 

"We'll find her, let's just keep going." Stiles nods to himself and continues to follow Derek through the woods. He’s shivering - because damn it's cold - and Derek must have heard his teeth clapper because he pulls of his - leather -jacket and gives it to Stiles. Stiles mutters a thank you before quickly putting it on because Derek is already walking away and he doesn't want to lose him.

 

It is dark now and the moon is just disappearing behind a thick curtain of clouds, the full moon will be in about a week Stiles states to himself. 

"Derek, I can't see anything anymore, we should just stop and continue when it's light again." Stiles almost falls down because of - something - lying on the ground with the only purpose that make Stiles' live even more miserable. 

"We can't... by then the trail would be gone." Stiles decides to swallow down his pride and simply just follow Derek blindly. It’s cold and it starts to drizzle after a while, which just made Derek walk faster and Stiles almost fall down more often - luckily not on his face so he’s able to get up quickly so he will not lose Derek. Just after another 'almost' fall, Stiles runs towards Derek again, only to run into his back. "Seriously Derek I can't see anything, why are yo -" and Stiles is unable to finish his sentence as he falls face first - it was predictable that it would happen sooner than later - into the ground. He is just about to get up when something catches his eye and he stumbles backwards as fast as possible while letting out a yelp. It isn't something, it is someone. 

"Derek!" Stiles yells while trying to get up but failing and only stumbling back more and more until his back is against a tree. 

"Derek!" Stiles is crying, he can't believe it... how? Derek is just standing numbly in front of the dead body, and it's freaking Stiles out, hell the dead body is freaking Stiles out! Derek continues to stand still and Stiles is afraid to move, he isn't -however - afraid to talk. 

"Derek...Derek is it-" he clears his throat and that only makes him realize that he has no idea where in the woods they are. 

"Derek is it Laura?" He supposes that he already knows -since he fell on the body -but still he wants to know for sure. 

"Yeah... it's Laura" and Derek's voice is just so full of hurt, pain, grieve and more sad emotions that it makes Stiles get up and stand next to him, to put a hand on his shoulder. 

"Derek... I'm so sorry." They stay like that for awhile until Stiles can't feel his toes anymore and starts to shiver again. He has to call this in with his dad, so that in the morning runners won't be running into a dead body. He grabs his phone and calls his dad's cell phone, hoping that for once he will pick up on the first ring. Which - luckily - he does. 

"Stiles? Where are you? Why aren't you home?" Stiles is really confused, he has no idea how late it is.

"Dad... we found Laura." He decides to get to the point as soon as possible.

"What? Where did you find here then? Where are you guys now?" Stiles looks at Derek's back and just when he is about to ask if he knows where they are, Derek already answers. 

"Just east of the town, the woods next to the highway, about two miles into the woods." Derek says, and so Stiles replies that into his phone to his dad. 

"Dammit Stiles, what are you doing in the woods so late?" And yeah, of course being in the woods around this hour isn't safe, and Laura's body didn't just come out of nowhere - and that thought makes Stiles scared. "Dad, please, just come quickly."

"Okay son I'll be there in ten." And his dad hangs up.

 

Just as he hears a car pulling up into the woods he turns towards Derek again. 

"Derek?" Derek turns around with full on anger on his face and his face is also half wolf -which Stiles didn't expect to see after he has just seen the dead body of his best friend - this day was just full of horrible things. Derek runs away, shifting fully and all Stiles is able left to do is yell his name to his back before he's gone. Stiles only has a second to process what just happened before someone walks up behind him - his dad, he can recognize his uniform from out of the corner of his eye. 

"Stiles? What are you doing here?" All Stiles can do is simply point at the place where Laura's body is situated. As he can see his dad's thoughts go from worried and confused to total comprehension - and just a little bit of panic- Stiles collapses into crying. His dad half hugs him as Stiles hears him calling in the found dead body. As he hears the sound of an other car arriving he is only aware of a blanket being rapped around him, and later on, him being pushed into a car. That's when he dozes off because of all the weight of all the happenings today.


	10. Chapter 10

Was it all a dream? Stiles asks himself as he wakes up in his own bed. But then again, the dream would be too vivid and clear to actually be a dream. So it's not... it all happened, Laura's dead, and it hurts like hell. When he walks downstairs his dad is sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in his hands - and it's light outside so it must be morning. "Morning son, ready to answer some questions?" His dad asks while still with his back towards him - he must have heard him come down the stairs, Stiles can never walk down the stairs quietly. 

"Hi dad." He grabs the coffee can and gets himself a cup of coffee too "What do you want to know." He asks his dad while sitting down in front of him and taking a sip of his own coffee. 

"Well first off, why won't you tell me what you were doing in the woods alone." Alone? Yeah of course, Derek ran off and left him all alone, with Laura's dead body! Sure, his dad was with him in a matter of seconds but still it would have been nice if he would've stayed around. 

"Seriously son, you better start talking now or I'll take you to the station anyway!" His father is loosing his temper.

"What? Station, why?" Stiles asks, confused and vulnerable.

"Well probably because you were the only one in the woods around that time of the night and you just so happened to walk into a dead body." It started to make sense to Stiles again.

"They think I'm a suspect? They think I did it?" It hurts, even if he himself knows he didn't do it, but then again, who did do it...

"I know you're not the killer Stiles, but the other cops don't know you as well as I do, it took a whole lot of convincing already to make sure you'd wake up in your own bed and not in a cell at the station. So please ju-" His dad's cell went of and while the Sheriff picked it up he gave Stiles a stern look as if to say 'don't go anywhere, we're certainly not done yet'.

"What do you mean it's gone? HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY BE GONE?" His dad yells into his phone. 

"Dad, what's -" His dad gives Stiles a panicked look and puts his index finger against his mouth, indicating Stiles   
to be quiet.

"I'll be there a.s.a.p.” His dad hangs up and puts his phone away "We're not done yet, you're not to go anywhere today and we'll finish this talk when I'm back." his dad manages to say that all on one breath and is out of the door before Stiles can reply.

 

It is gone? Laura? Do they mean Laura's body and if they do mean her - what else could they be talking about - what could have happened to her. He decides to simply just ignore his dad's orders and go out anyways, the only trouble is that his Jeep still doesn't work - for whatever reason that may be and hey how is he going to take it to the mechanical. He must find Derek, and the only place that he could be right now is looking for the Argents, because they killed most if his family so why not kill his sister too, it makes sense if you think about it. He walks out of the door while grabbing a jacket on his way towards the Argent's house - and it's Derek's jacket and it was on the coat stand and his dad must have taken it from him when they came home last night - and Stiles really hopes that his dad didn't put too much thought into who the jacket could be from or since when Stiles has a leather jacket. 

 

It's cold outside and Derek's jacket is nice and warm. He walks towards the Argent's house as fast as his legs allow him, only to realize that 'what is he ever going to do when he gets there' which plainly leaves him standing helplessly on the sidewalk in front of the Argent's house. Whispering out Derek's name doesn't make him feel any less stupid, but then again that is how he finds him after all. After whispering out Derek's name in every direction he gets a reply which is almost too soft for him to hear at all, and basically it's no surprise that it's coming from the woods.  
Derek is standing at ease just at the side of the woods. 

"Derek?" Stiles asks as he stands in front of him. 

"It wasn't the Argents." Derek says out of no where giving Stiles' jacket - well technically still Derek's jacket - a look and then a smirk. 

"What?" Is all that Stiles is able to reply to him.

"It wasn't the Argents that killed Laura, the scent is all wrong." Derek looks around the woods.

"Well then who's scent was it?"

"I don't know," Derek says frustratingly. "Her scent was mostly like it always is - always was, a little bit like home, family, herself and the woods. There was just a small part of other scent but I didn't recognize it, so I thought it was the Argents - because that makes sense - but it isn't and I just ... " Derek's panicking.

"Derek, calm down, we'll find out who killed her..." And this might not be the right time to ask this - but when ever was it the right time? 

"Derek, do you know where her body is?"

"Yeah... I buried her." Stiles is about to open his mouth and begin a whole speech to make clear that the body is necessary for the ongoing investigation to find out who killed her, but who would know more about that than Derek, or about how the police saw the dead body and they'll be looking for it - but then he would probably have hidden it someplace safe - and seriously the guy just lost his sister - not that much later after having lost his whole family - and who can blame him for having some urge to comfort the dead.

"Derek, let's go. I need to be home before my dad gets back and you need a place to rest for a while. Let's just.... go."  
They walk back towards Stiles' house - luckily before the Sheriff is back again. Derek claims Stiles' bed - and it's good to see him resting again. Stiles has just an hour to prepare a speech to his dad before he's back.

 

Of course it's no surprise that his dad doesn't believe even half of his story, but luckily it's enough to get him off of his back again for a while. His dad soon gets called into the station - because they're still looking for the missing body - and Stiles is relieved because Derek is still in his room - in his bed - and how would he have explained that to his dad.

 

When he walks into his room Derek's already awake again and sitting on the side of the bed.

"So what's the plan?" Stiles asks while taking a seat in his desk chair.

"I'm going to find her killer and then I'm going to kill him or her." Stiles lets out a sigh, sometimes Derek can be so predictable.

"Derek.. You should at least have a plan when you know who it is and -" his voice turns into yelling towards the ends because Derek is about to leave through the window. 

"You can't just leave!" Derek ignores him and jumps out of his window, when Stiles walks towards his window and looks outside Derek's already gone.

 

It's odd how things around you continue to go on in their usual ways when you've experienced something that makes the whole world stop turning for you. There are the condolences Stiles gets from some people who knew Laura and him were friends but it isn't more than that. Nobody's crying in hallways and nobody's feeling like shit, except for Stiles - he's feeling like shit. During classes he's on time - so finally there's no reason for Harris to give him detention of any sort - he doesn't talk much during classes nor during lunch time and everybody for some sort of reason just leaves him alone. He's worried about Derek and him not answering any of his texts nor calls doesn't make it any better. The funny thing is, he still has his jacket and uses it daily. His dad has put the subject to rest - but Stiles never knows for how long that will stay that way. Homework gets made, projects get done and school becomes the number one on his occupying list again. His Jeep gets fixed again so he doesn't have to ride with his dad or Scott to school anymore. The nightmares are still there, nightmares of Laura laughing at him - before the house burning - and then Laura's dead body looking him in the eyes, lying in the woods without knowing what - who - happened to her. So basically, he stops sleeping, takes more Adderall and continues his homework or projects through the nights. If he's finished with it he finds himself uselessly browsing the internet - which mostly ends up with trying to find more information about werewolves. He hears about Allison's aunt being found dead in her house and is not even slightly surprised. Even though he doesn't know how it happened he decides to let it go – maybe Derek did it but that’s probably not true if he said that it weren’t the Argents who killed Laura. However Kate Argent may have died Stiles - and he does feel rather guilty about thinking it - is glad that she's gone. It doesn't make his fears and worries any less though. It's one night in particular that it becomes too much and he decides to just go.

 

He parks his jeep before the sign and gets out of the car. He knows this is a really bad time, but he has to know everything right now. Twigs and leaves crack under his feet as he walks through the woods. For the first time in his life he’s thankful for the full moon, because without that light he wouldn’t see anything and he’d probably be on the floor now or he would’ve walked into a tree. When he’s almost there he hears a sound behind him. He turns around only to see trees and shadows. 

“This is private property.” A voice in the distance says. He recognizes the voice, as one that he’s heard way too much these last few months. It’s Derek Hale’s voice.  
Or maybe he hasn't heard his voice enough these last few weeks which causes it to have more impact on him. Derek looks different.

"What happened?" Stiles asks while stepping closer to him.

"I'm the alpha now." Derek says as his eyes turn red- which makes Stiles automatically take a step back. 

"What do you mean that you're the alpha?" Too much thoughts are running through his mind and all his midnight reading information is catching up to his dream, to become an alpha you must be a next in line and become one after the alpha dies - like with Laura or really just because there were no next in line. Or you must kill an alpha, and that thought doesn't make it easy on Stiles, which causes him to speak without thinking first. 

"You killed Laura?" Which simply just makes Derek's eyes turn red again and a soft growling noise come from his throat. 

"Of course not." Derek states, "Come on, let's go somewhere that's lighted and not the woods." And Derek simply just tugs him along. They get into his Jeep and before Stiles can ask Derek gives him directions towards, apparently, what turns out to be a diner.

 

When they enter they're not the only ones but it isn't busy either. They take a seat in the corner which is almost isolated from all the other people in the diner. The waitress arrives at their table and they order something to drink, only after she has returned and they've gotten their drinks Derek starts to talk.

"It was my uncle."  
Which makes absolutely no sense, so Derek explains everything. From his uncle still being alive, to his uncle killing Laura, to Derek killing him after slowly figuring out that it was him, to Derek now being an alpha. It's almost unbelievable that so much crazy things can happen in such a short time, but then again, they live in Beacon Hills, a town that apparently has the presence of real werewolves.


	11. Chapter 11

Stiles and Derek stay at the diner even when Derek is finished talking. Stiles is staring numbly into the nothingness while chewing on his straw, and when Derek nudges his foot he looks up. 

"The waitress is giving us frustrating glances, maybe we should go." Stiles looks in the direction of the bar and yes, she's staring grumpy in their direction. He nods and they stand up to leave, Stiles is grabbing his wallet to pay when Derek already throws money on the diner table - how did he get to it so fast? - and nudges him along, towards the exit.  
The fresh air does Stiles good when they come outside, it isn't too cold - since Stiles is still wearing Derek's jacket, but since he hasn't asked it back he'll just keep holding onto it. He wants to go home and sleep, because he hasn't slept for a while but the nightmares make sleeping less and less desirable for him. Stiles drives them to his house and invites him in, his dad isn't home and Stiles wonders if that would have made this situation more or less awkward.

"If you need anything just call okay?" Stiles says as he stops in front of the guest bedroom and when he looks at Derek he notices he looks all wrong. 

"I'd rather not sleep there." This simply just confuses Stiles, because why would anybody rather sleep on a couch than a good comfy bed. His confused expression doesn’t go unnoticed to Derek and he explaines. 

"Laura slept here when we were staying at your place, the whole room reeks of her." Oh... shit. Stiles just keeps managing to think correctly before saying or deciding something else. 

"Okay, sorry, you just sleep in my room and I'll sleep here." Derek just shakes no with his head, which makes Stiles rethink what he'd said again but coming up blank. 

"If you'll sleep there, you'll eventually end up reeking of her because of her lingering scent." Which , also, makes sense, but means that either one of them must sleep on the couch. Stiles does in fact know the rule about putting guests before himself, but damn, the couch sucks to sleep on. 

"Stiles," Derek says before Stiles can fully turn around. 

"I'm not obligating you to sleep on the couch, I'll just sleep while sitting in that chair of yours.”

"Are you sure?" Stiles asks doubtingly but when Derek just simply nods Stiles vastly walks towards his room - because he really does not want to sleep on the couch - grabs his sleeping stuff and locks himself up in the bathroom, getting ready for bed.

 

It's really awkward. Stiles doesn't know how long he has been trying to sleep but even though Derek hasn't moved in his chair, he can't sleep. 

"Derek?" Derek hums so Stiles continues, "I can't sleep with you sitting in that chair." Derek looks grumpily at him but does move from the chair towards the floor next to Stiles' bed and he lies down. Stiles tries to fall asleep again but it still doesn't work. 

"Derek..." He says doubtingly. 

"Seriously Stiles I can't possibly be bothering you from down here, you can't even see me." Derek answers grumpy, which just makes Stiles decide to shut up and just try to sleep.

 

He's still lying awake when Derek starts making noise by moving.

"Move," He simply says, Stiles is confused but he moves anyway. The situation gets even more awkward when Derek climbs into bed next to him - and even though the bed is big enough for two fat dudes - he panics just a little. 

"Calm down Stiles, the bed is big enough and I'm not going to do anything to you, just sleep." And so Stiles does. He listens to the intakes and outtakes of Derek's breathing and shortly after his last turning around he falls asleep.

 

The woods. He’s in the woods, a faint sound of howling in the distance. It is freezing and Stiles' clattering teeth make a very distinct sound. He doesn't know why, but he is running. It begins to storm and it gets even darker, he runs faster. He is out of breath and hides behind a tree, hoping that he can rest for a while. A thunderous sound startles him and he starts running again. He thinks that he was getting closer to the outskirts of town when he suddenly falls down. As he looks at what he fell down on, lifeless eyes are watching him.

Of course he wakes up to a nightmare, the only thing he didn't expect was to wake up to Derek being there to calm him down.

"Stiles? Stiles! Calm down, you're okay. Breathe." The funny thing is - even though there's nothing funny about nightmares haunting you - that it helps. He focuses on his breathing and looks at Derek - who's breathing with him, and it does in fact calm him down.  
After his mother died - and before when her death was coming closer day by day - Stiles used to have nightmares too. His dad woke him from them most of the time but he never really got him to calm down. But Derek calms him down immediately, and even though his tears are still on his cheeks and the nightmare is still in front of his eyes he's thankful.  
The nightmares he has about Laura make him think about her death. How horribly disgusting and wrong in every way that it happened like it did, if Peter wasn't already dead Stiles would probably want to kill him. The nightmares also make him panic, because after a while what if he could only remember Laura the way he found her on the ground in the woods. Her beautiful way of talking around things and making the most stupid conversations useful were much nicer to remember her by, but every nightmare more made her lifeless body more permanent in his brain when he thought about her. It scared him.

"Thank you." He whispers, and Derek nods. They're both still on the bed, Stiles is leaning against the headboard and Derek is sitting on the bedside with one feet on the ground and the other on the bed so he's able to look at Stiles. 

"I have a feeling that I know what you were dreaming about." Derek says numbly. Stiles decides not to react because he simply just doesn't want to talk about it.

"Did you sleep at all?" Stiles asks Derek as he looks at the alarm clock on his nightstand, it says 4AM - and Stiles is surprised he slept that long because it's the longest he has slept in a while.

"When you fell asleep I dozed off a few times but no, I didn't really sleep." Which makes absolute sense to Stiles, in contradiction with Derek, Stiles' trauma was simply just a minor thing happening, and with Derek... With Derek it's a whole other story. It makes him feel bad, because he doesn't know what to do about it or how to help him through these tough times. That makes him feel stupid, because why would Derek possibly want his help? Before everything happened they never even spoke to each other. How things can change. The whole mindset just makes him think of Laura again. He really misses her. Before she told him that her family existed of werewolves everything was perfect. But she's gone, and Stiles is just going to have to cope without her, just like he's coping without his mother.   
He needs to learn to move on without her - just like he had to learn the same when his mother passed away - and he already knows that it's going to be one hell of a job. Nobody's going to like it. Pushing his thoughts away from Laura makes him think about Derek again. Basically that's all his mind does these last few weeks – or rather months. When he's not thinking about Laura, he's thinking about Derek.  
Derek's an alpha now, so the next full moon is going to be tough. He's also severely damaged - with losing his whole family - and Stiles really doesn't know how to help him. He'll try though.

"What are we going to do?" Stiles asks Derek.

"I don't know." It's quiet and if Stiles wouldn't be afraid of new nightmares he'd probably be going back to sleep again. A thought comes up to him.

"Derek, aren't you supposed to have a pack as an alpha?" Derek looks at him shockingly but nods.

"Lets find you a pack then." Stiles states. Because what would an alpha be without a pack? Derek lets go of a breath. 

"For a second there I thought you were going to ask me to change you." That surprises Stiles, because he hadn't even thought about it himself. But what he says in reply, he finds out he really means. "I like being human, even though I'm fragile and useless and all that stuff. I want to stay human."

"You're not useless." Derek replies. "Anyway I would have thought that you wouldn't want anything to do with werewolves after everything that has happened."

"Well, I am very good at surprises" Stiles jokes. Derek lets go of a little laugh and it's in that moment that Stiles thinks maybe everything can turn out okay.

"Lets go back to trying to sleep, you've got school in the morning." Derek says, and Stiles is pulled back into his teenage high school life which he had totally forgotten about. 

"Okay." He says and lays back down. He feels the bed moving next to him and Derek lets go of a sigh. His eyelids are getting heavy and the bed is less cold with Derek in it, so he falls asleep sooner than he'd thought.

 

When he wakes up the next morning he's surprised about not having anymore nightmares that night. When he gets downstairs his dad's car is already out of the driveway - a few glasses a proof that he had been home at all. Derek is not in the kitchen and the rest if the house sounds too still to Stiles. He has enough time to get to school, so that's what he does. Back to the normal teenage, high school life.

 

School sucks. Obviously everybody knows that but Stiles has the feeling that with him it's worse. Lydia and Allison keep asking him how he's doing, Jackson keeps looking cocky at him - which makes him rather uncomfortable, and Scott keeps acting like nothing happened - and Stiles hasn't decided yet if that's worse then Allison and Lydia or better...  
Turns out when Stiles and Scott walk towards class together, he hadn't forgotten about it after all.

"Okay so I know Allison and Lydia are already bothering you enough with these questions, but how are you   
holding up man?" Scott starts. The walk towards their class is pretty long - because it's on the other side of the building - so Scott picked a perfectly well time for this subject.

"I'm fine." It's all he's been replying to others as well these days.

"Don't start that shit with me man. Really tell me how you're holding up." It rather surprises him that Scott really wants to know - since he wasn't particularly a fan of Laura. And all Scott could think about the last time they spoke was Allison.

"It's hard but I'm coping." He decides that's the best way to react, to let Scott know that he doesn't want to talk about it. Because if Stiles starts talking about it, it's hard not to start crying. Scott gets the signal and changes the subject to lacrosse. Stiles just nods along, not really interested about the lacrosse Beacon Hills High school team, at least not anymore.

 

The day flows by rather quickly, and when he pulls up in his driveway - to his surprise - he sees his dad’s car parked in front of the house. As he walks inside it's indeed true that his dad is home. Stiles can't remember the last time he has seen him.

"Stiles, would you join me in the living room please." His dad shouts, Stiles shouts a ' in a minute back ' and hangs his jacket up - technically still Derek's jacket.. He still hasn't asked it back. When he walks into the living room his dad is sitting on the couch facing the television while a game of football is playing. 

"Hey dad what's up." He sits down on the seat across of his dad so he's facing his dad - paying no interest to the game on television. 

"How was your day at school?" His dad asks and Stiles wonders why he ignored his question. "Good." Stiles numbly replies.

"Anything interesting happened?"

"Nah." It's quiet and Stiles realises that his dad is fishing for something that he's doubting to ask about, not really in the mood to lose too much time Stiles decides to give him the easy way out. 

"Just ask what you want to ask dad." Doubt disappears from his dad’s face. 

"I just wanted to know how you've been holding up since... you know since Laura." It still hurts Stiles that every time that he hears her name the image that appears in front of his eyes is the one when he fell on her dead body in the woods. "I'm okay." Stiles says, noticing that his dad doesn’t believe him one bit.

"It's just that when it happened I wasn't around to support you... And I've been rather absent these last few weeks. But I don't want to be a bad dad to you or anything." His dad’s expression hurts Stiles. He’s already working so much and doing his best, Stiles just wants him to take a few days of rest. He wants him to smile a little more.

"You're not a bad dad. And sometimes your work just requires your full attention there's nothing wrong about that."

"Don't make excuses Stiles, you lost your best friend and I was never around to support you." His dad sounds angry, but his face says that he isn’t angry at all. At least, not at Stiles.

"I'm okay dad." Again, his dad doesn’t look likes he believes Stiles.

"I just want you to know that if you ever need to talk to somebody or need a shoulder to cry on," Stiles blushes, talking about feelings isn't a thing the Stilinski's do very often. "You can always come to me, you know that right."

"Yeah dad I do." He gets up and gets ready to leave when his dad grabs his wrist. Stiles looks down at his face in surprise.

"You really are okay?" Stiles nods. 

"Okay son, go do your homework or something." Also a typically Stilinski thing to do, make jokes in uncomfortable or intimate situations. Stiles nods again and just before walking up the first stair his dad calls his name again. 

"Stiles. I really am sorry." His dad’s back is turned to him, so he can’t see his face.

"It's okay dad." His dad turns around and they look each other in the eyes when the Sheriff nods and looks towards the kitchen - an indication that he won't begin talking about the subject again. 

"I'm making pancakes in an hour." His dad states.

"If you'll call me I'll come down and help you."

"Okay." His dad replies, before turning his attention back toward the game playing on the television. Stiles walks up to his room and spends the next hour before dinner thinking about the conversation with Scott and his dad while staring blankly at his chemistry homework.

 

As he gets back up to his room after dinner, he vaguely hears his dad drive away. He was called back to the station just at the end of the dinner, which left Stiles to do the dishes. The house is quiet again so the shade of someone in his room startles him. Of course it's Derek and that realisation immediately calms him down again. 

"You could always use the door you know." Stiles states sarcastically. “Or you know, wear a bell or something.” Honestly he's glad that Derek's back again. He has the tendency to be worrying about him almost the whole day these days. Also, he doesn't sleep when Derek is not here. Telling him this is not supposed to ever happen, so he expresses himself by making sarcastic comments. Which luckily Derek rarely replies to, because if Derek were to leave because of Stiles' sarcastic and stupid comments Stiles wouldn't know what to do. Derek sits down on his bed and Stiles - with the reoccurring thought that his chemistry homework has to be finished tomorrow - tries to get something on paper while sitting at his desk with his back towards Derek. He doesn't maintain it long though. Because the shifting of Derek behind him and the boringness of the homework makes him turn around and face Derek. He's not up for another awkward conversation today, and it looks like Derek understands him. Stiles grabs his sleeping clothes and goes into the bathroom to get into his pyjama’s and get ready for bed. When he walks back into his room again the lights are already out - only the light of the street lanterns which he doesn't really need because he knows his room - make it clear that Derek's already lying on his bed, at the same side he was on last time. It's too early for Stiles to actually sleep. But the sleepless nights of these past few weeks greet him as he collapses on his mattress. While turning around to find the right sleeping position he bumps against Derek a few times, every time muttering sorry. Until Derek eventually pulls Stiles against his chest. His heart raises like he has just run a marathon and he doesn't know how to react. The warmth of Derek and the softness of his chest are like a lullaby to him. He tries to relax and eventually falls asleep on the best pillow he's ever had.


	12. Chapter 12

Of course he notices it, it's more that he just simply has tried to push it to the back of his mind every time he had any kind of thought about it. Nobody could escape from the impulse of giving Derek an extra glance. An extra glance at everything he did was also forgivable because hell, that body is like the body of a god.  
Stiles always felt stupid when he was eyeing Derek before the Hale fire. He was in a relationship with Kate and Stiles was nothing compared to that. He was also impossible to talk to, so eventually when Stiles sometimes went with Laura to their house Stiles always ignored him - at least... he tried to. For some sort of reason Stiles' eyes always ended up looking at Derek. He never expected to have any kind of conversation with him, never (never) expected to have any sort of feelings for him - except for the appreciation of his beauty that is. So it still surprises him that he wakes up to lying with half of his body on Derek lately, and having slept without any nightmares. The awkwardness never really goes away - it does become less. They don't talk about it and Stiles tries not to think too much about it.

 

It's on a Sunday morning when waking up from a marvellous night rest that it becomes too much to him and that he decides to talk about it.

"Derek, we need to talk." Doubt is clear in Stiles voice, but he wants to get it over with.

"About what?" His tone is nonchalant, making it clear that he does - in fact - not want to talk about anything.  
It's really awkward but this conversation needs to happen now Stiles thinks to himself as he continues. 

"About these sleepovers," he blushes violently. "What do they mean."

"What do you want them to mean?" Derek isn't making it any easier on Stiles and it's starting to frustrate him.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about Derek. I'm asking this seriously." Stiles' temper is getting tested and he doesn't like that.

"Why?" The question confuses him and Derek escalates his question further. "Why ask at all."

"What do you mean?" Stiles ask with a frustrating tone to his question.

"I mean, why start talking about it at all. Talking about things just makes it all more complicate. Talking about things raises confusion -"

"I'm already confused Derek." Stiles interrupts.

" - Talking about things makes them real." And now everything makes sense to Stiles. This, whatever this is. It always seems to go back to the Kate thing.

"Derek -" he starts but Derek turns around. They're both sitting on the bed, next to each other. Derek is now facing the window while Stiles looks at the back of his head, wondering what he can do to fix this, to maybe fix him.

"I'm sorry." He decides to take the safe way out and is just about to let it be when Derek turns to look back at him.

He has never kissed anyone before. Sure there were the crushes – mostly Lydia. But it never went further than just liking anybody because of their looks. But Derek, Derek is something completely different, and Derek... Derek is also a great - first - kiss.  
He'll never admit it to anyone else but himself - that he's startled at first. He didn't expect it - anytime soon nor ever. Derek puts his hand on Stiles’ neck, pushes Stiles' face forward a little and before Stiles can react their lips are touching. The first few seconds Stiles doesn't reply – he’s too shocked to react. But before Derek can pull away Stiles pulls himself together and just goes for it - even though he barely knows what he's doing. Derek's lips are perfect kissing lips and Stiles gets overwhelmed by the sensation that Derek's lips bring to his mind. Too soon - because even after forever it would be too soon - Derek pulls away and the kiss ends. Stiles - also - wasn't prepared to the after affect. All the confusion and doubt comes down onto him. Well... at least the awkwardness was gone. At least... that's what Stiles thought.

"Care to escalate?" He asks, doubt clear in his voice again. Derek doesn’t reply, but is still looking at him. 

"Look Derek, all I'm sure about now is that with you staying the nights I don't have any nightmares," He starts blushing while saying the next line, and he hates himself for it. "And that you're really hot." Derek chuckles in reply, which gives Stiles hope that maybe this will end up okay.

"Stiles..." Derek’s hesitating voice makes Stiles unsure again, until Derek pulls him into a hug. His body language tells Stiles all he needs to know. 'Don't let me go'. And Stiles pulls his arms round him and hugs him tightly. Replying with his own body language the same sentence. 'Don't let me go either'.

 

"Why him?" Derek ask Stiles while looking at a photo.

"Well first of all, he's a really nice guy." Derek looks Stiles dead in the eye.

"Okay okay, serious stuff. Uhm.. Well he has lost his mom from a young age and his brother too and apparently his dad is abusing him."  
Derek nods. "Okay, Isaac Lahey it is. Have you got anyone else?"

"Uhm well... yeah." Stiles starts to blush. "I thought it would be unfair to only let guys into your pack so.. -"

"I'm not changing Lydia for whatever reason you have Stiles." Stiles chuckles, just a few weeks back he had told Derek about his crush on Lydia. Derek took it well, and after having said 'everybody makes mistakes' the subject was discharged.

"No it's not Lydia. Her name is Erica Reyes," Stiles says while putting on a photo of Erica on his laptop. "Okay." Derek replies unenthusiastically. "And why her?"

"Well, she's very nice," Stiles chuckles but quickly continues. "And she has epilepsy." He ads less cheery. They're sitting at Stiles' desk together, sharing a chair that isn't meant for two persons, but it's cosy and Stiles likes it.

"Okay, Erica Reyes is also added to the list." Derek mumbles while writing down Erica's address beneath Isaac's. It was Stiles’ idea to make a list of possible betas for Derek’s pack.

"Did you choose anyone?" Stiles asks jokingly, the serious reply of Derek surprises him. 

"Actually, I did." Derek says.

"Who?" Stiles asks curiously. Derek pulls Stiles' laptop near him and ticks in a name, pulling up a picture - and an address which he writes down. When he’s finished writing he explains.

"Boyd. Well, apparently his name is Vernon Boyd, but everybody just calls him Boyd. Do you know him?" Derek questions.  
Stiles is trying to keep his facial expressions under control. 

"No not really, he's not very talkative." Derek nods in confirmation. 

"So why him?" Stiles asks curiously

"He just speaks to me." Stiles wants to know why, but Derek used to be very quiet too - he still is in any other company than Stiles. So Stiles decides to let it drop.

"Okay, so now what." Stiles asks, closing his laptop.

"They have to accept first, and after that they'll have to survive their first full moon which will be very difficult -"

"I'll help." Derek smiles at him and it makes Stiles' stomach flutter.

"I'm surprised that you didn't want Scott on the list." Derek talking about Scott always makes Stiles a little uncomfortable. Because if he only knew how Scott was talking about him behind his back - without even really knowing him.

"Well, it's rather obvious to not have him on the list, since he's dating Allison Argent." Stiles replies while biting on a pen that was lying on his desk next to his laptop.

"So?" Derek is either playing dumb or just wanting to get hurt.

"So, getting someone involved who's already involved with hunters won't be a very good idea." Stiles states while rolling his eyes.

"Stiles, if you want to have Scott in the pack, just tell me. We'll find a way to deal with it then." Stiles shakes no, convinced that it's a bad idea. A very bad idea.

"Think about it some more." Derek says, grabbing the tree addresses of Isaac, Erica and Boyd and putting them in his pocket.

"I'll go pay them a visit then." Derek gives him a brief kiss on his lips before disappearing out of Stiles' bedroom window.

 

They all said yes. And just like Derek said, the first full moon with them is tough. Stiles almost gets bitten by Isaac - luckily a beta's bite can't turn you. After the full moon Isaac's so guilty about what he did that he tries to make it up to Stiles all the time. Derek just laughs at them and when Stiles asks him to order Isaac to stop, Derek just replies with a 'you chose him', which makes every other argument Stiles has useless. The same counts for Erica, she's more present and cocky after the bite, which immediately turns her into a bitch most of the time. The only one that's no trouble to the pack, is Boyd. And Derek keeps rubbing it in Stiles' face.

 

"Yeah I know, he's perfect." Stiles admits against his will. Derek laughs and Stiles realises that he's been doing   
that a lot more recently. It's good, laughing looks good on Derek and Derek's laugh makes Stiles laugh too. Things are good between them, they started - with the betas - to rebuild the Hale house. It took many arguments and fights between them for Derek to admit that he wanted to fix the house too. The first floor was soon done and after that Stiles starts hanging out there more and more. The only times when he's not there is when he's at school or when he’s sleeping, in which case Derek’s at his place. School is the worst because Derek is not with him around those times. Scott keeps making offensive comments about Derek at the most random times, and if it wouldn't keep surprising him he'd have made a nasty comeback comment. He doesn't talk to Derek much about Scott, but decides that they've also got to talk about Scott to put Stiles' mind more at ease.

"Scott is frustrating me." He's lying in his bed with his head on top of Derek's chest.

"Are you two having another fight again?" It must be clear to Derek that the days when he goes to the Hale house after school and he's cranky, it's because of Scott.

“It’s not really fights. It's just something I don't agree on with him.”

"Mostly those are called fights." Derek states as a fact.

"I don't tell him I don't agree with him, but he still pisses me off by making those comments."  
He throws his leg over Derek's torso and hugs Derek's chest with his head, he feels like a cat. A million cat and dog jokes come to mind but he decides not to let any of them out of his mouth, since this in a serious moment.

"What's he saying then?" Derek's voice rumbles in Stiles' right ear when he speaks. 

"He's saying stupid stuff about you." Stiles replies. Derek's hand moves along the nape of Stiles' neck and it makes him shiver.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Derek asks him, his voice filled with concern.

"Nah." He does want to talk about it though, just not now. Now he's getting sleepier by every breath he takes. 

"Have I ever told you that you make an excellent pillow." Derek's laugh rumbles in his chest and Stiles stomach turns again. 

"Go to sleep Stiles." Derek says, and yeah. That's a great idea.

 

Woods. What is he doing in the woods? There are footsteps behind him and he's running away from the sound. He's running along a track when a howl sounds clearly in the night. Laura. He doesn't know how he could recognise her howl when he's never seen her fully shift, but somehow he just knows. He's running harder and sweat is pouring off of his body. He's running past a burning house but he keeps going. Until he trips. The ground is filled with flies, which disappear when he falls face first into the forest ground. His hand touches somebody else's hand, he looks up and is greeted with Laura's eyes staring deathly into his. He screams, and screams. His throat getting hoarse, but he keeps screaming. Laura's body moves to a standing position, hovering above the ground. 'It was your fault.' He hears her voice saying it but her mouth doesn't move along. The flies appear again and start to tear away her flesh. He keeps -

He wakes up screaming, sweat on his back, chest and head. Derek is hovering above him yelling his name. 

"Stiles! Stiles! Calm down, you're okay." He's still panicking but he stops screaming. The side of the bed next to him feels cold and he gets why he had the nightmare. 

"You left." His voice sounds small and if it weren't for Derek's werewolf hearing he's sure Derek wouldn't have heard him. 

"I know, I'm sorry," He pulls Stiles into a crushing hug. "I'm so sorry Stiles. I'm so sorry." The feeling of Derek's body against him calms him down immediately and except for the still ongoing tears falling off his cheeks he stops crying.

"I never got him to calm down after a nightmare." His dad is standing in the doorway of Stiles' room and Stiles is wondering for how long be has been standing there. 

"I'll make breakfast, come down in a half hour. Both of you." His dad says. He hovers in the doorway adding an, 

"Are you okay son?" Stiles nods and before his dad walks away he gives him and Derek an odd glance.

They stay embraced for a while longer before Stiles pulls away, not getting enough fresh air when almost getting crushed by Derek Hale. Derek looks him over and starts apologizing again.

"It's okay." Stiles says, “But what happened?” Derek starts to blush and it makes Stiles nervous to hear about whatever happened.

"Somewhere halfway through the night your dad came into your room, he uhm.. He saw us sleeping together, well rather that he saw you lying half on top of me. He was furious and really confused and wanted to talk to me downstairs." After a short pause Derek continues. 

"I never thought about your nightmares returning Stiles. I'm so sorry." Stiles pulls Derek in another hug, and realising that he's still all sweaty from the nightmare he quickly lets go. 

"What did you guys talk about, what does he know." Stiles asks while getting out of bed and putting on some fresh clothes, realising that he doesn’t have enough time to take a shower.

"I told him that after Laura's dead we've been leaning on each other, which eventually led to our relationship. He also asked how long we'd been sleeping together." Derek blushes violently again. 

"Before I could reply I heard you screaming upstairs and ran." Stiles nods. Needing to process everything - what Derek just told him and his nightmare - he tells Derek that they should probably head downstairs before his dad gets even more pissed. 

 

His dad isn't happy about the news of their relationship, and after Derek is obligated to leave Stiles tries to calm his dad down a little. 

"Is this a serious thing, son?" His dad asks while rubbing his eyebrows together. 

"Yeah dad, it kind of is." This whole conversation exists of Stiles blushing. 

"So have you guys..." His dad clears his throat and also starts to blush. "You know." Stiles head is about as red as a tomato right now. 

"No dad, we haven't yet and I don't think that we're about to any time soon." His dad nods and takes another sip of his drink. 

"He’s a lot older than you." His dad finally says after a long silence. 

"I know." Stiles admits.

"That doesn't bother you?" Stiles thinks about it. 

"No not really." He replies. His dad nods again and looks out of the window, probably thinking. 

"You know what, son?" Stiles stays silent and his dad continues. "Seeing him calm you down, the way I never could. Seeing him take care of you and you two both have lost a very important person in your lives. It starts to make sense." His dad gets up, finishes his drink and puts his glass on the sink.

"So you're okay with this? With us." Stiles asks, hopefully.

"I guess I am, but if he ever hurts you in any way, just remind him that I'm the Sheriff of this town and that I've got a gun." Stiles lets out a small laugh in reply and pulls his dad into a hug. He's glad that he still has his dad.

 

When Derek finally lets him know where he buried Laura, Stiles thinks it's time to finally give her a good goodbye, and maybe a thanks. Because if it wasn't for her, he never would have really gotten to know Derek. He still misses her. He always will, just like it is with his mom.

 

He's sitting on the front steps of the Hale house, facing the woods. The pack is having some sort of crazy werewolf training with Derek. Sometimes one of them fails epically and Stiles laughs until it hurts. It's Erica's turn. She keeps doing the same as attack again and again and Derek yells at her to do something else, to surprise him. That's when she jumps onto him, hangs onto his chest and starts to kiss him. A sick feeling overwhelms Stiles and his face turns from laughing to uneasiness and sickness. Derek throws her of him as fast as he possibly could have and yells at her to never do that again. He looks into Stiles' direction and what he sees must make him panic too. He tells the pack to continue training and walks over to Stiles. Stiles sees that he's about to say sorry and Stiles just starts to shake no with his head, realizing that there are a few tears rolling down his cheeks. Derek says it anyway.

"Stiles I'm sorry, when I told her to do something surprising I didn't expect her to do this." Stiles nods. "And I tried to get her off as quickly as possible." Derek adds, he looks helpless. A drop of sweat from the training is rolling down his forehead.  
Derek pulls Stiles off of the steps and hugs him. Stiles dries his tears on his shirt. 

"I'm sorry for reacting this way." Stiles mumbles into Derek's shoulder. This whole sensation just makes it too hard on him. He’s been having a tough life, well everybody has that sometimes, and he knows that. Somehow seeing the one person that is making his days much better just be grabbed by whoever wants to, hurts him in a completely and unexpected way.

"It's okay, but maybe this is -" Derek clears his throat and pulls away from Stiles. "Stiles, maybe it's time to tell other people that we're in a relationship." If they would ever get to telling about their relationship to others, Stiles didn't expect it to be Derek to start a conversation about it. Stiles thinks about it and yeah, it’s a good idea. Because he never wants this to happen again.

"I think that's a good idea too." Stiles says and on a second thought pulls Derek into a kiss - which he may be overdoing just a little- Derek doesn't comment on it when they pull away and Stiles just smiles at him, rubbing his eyes.

"You know?" Derek asks while brushing away the leftovers of Stiles' tears with his thumb. Stiles mumbles what and Derek replies. 

"You were the one that chose her." Derek finishes. Stiles laughs out loud and grabs Derek's hand while they're   
walking towards the pack - who are already looking at them - to tell them what they now probably already know.

 

Erica keeps apologizing to him for five weeks before Stiles finally has Derek convinced to make her stop. The pack handles the news of Derek and Stiles’ relationship well and that gives Stiles courage to tell Scott as well. He doesn't react as well as the pack did - of course - but that's mostly out of incomprehension. After Stiles tells him the whole story about Derek helping him through Laura's dead – and also the other way around - Scott sounds more sincere when he tells them that he hopes that they're happy. It's only a moment before the whole school knows - Scott told Allison, it must have been pulled out of Allison by Lydia and Lydia told everybody. Stiles doesn't mind though, he's happy with Derek.

 

Stiles, Derek and the pack are having dinner at the renovated Hale house -which they've now decided to call the 'Pack House'. Stiles cooked pancakes and the sound of moans and smacking makes him content with his own cooking. After dinner the pack has to go home because they've got to spend some time with their parents too now and then. Isaac's staying with Boyd - they're making it a 'boy night'. Having the house all to themselves doesn’t stop Stiles and Derek from going outside anyway. Derek tells Stiles that he wants to take Stiles somewhere, so they go. Stiles putting on Derek’s jacket, because he has kept it ever since and really likes to wear it.  
Derek and Stiles are walking in the woods, towards the clearing where Stiles once went along with Derek and Cora. They're sitting down at the same tree with a view towards the undergoing sun. Stiles is leaning against Derek's chest and Derek's fingers are softly stroking across Stiles' buzz cut. His eyes are closed, but on hearing the sound of birds he opens them. A group of birds are flying high above their heads. The days are getting warmer again. It's the arrival of the birds. Another winter has passed by.


	13. Epilogue

Epilogue

Stiles wakes up with a smile on his face. The rising sun is shining through the window. Next to him is Derek, still asleep. They're in their own room of the Pack-house. The bed is two times the size of Stiles' bed at home, which is one of the many reasons to why he slept really good – that and Derek’s arms around him. He turns onto his side and watches Derek. Derek's face is relaxed and Stiles can't help but touch it. He trails his thumb over Derek's eyebrows towards his nose - over his eyes- and ends up on his lips. Still fascinated with the beauty of Derek, Stiles can't help but let his thumb linger. When his eyes reach up to Derek's eyes, Derek is looking back at him. 

"Good morning." Stiles mumbles, lost in Derek's eyes. 

"Morning." Derek replies and pulls Stiles into a kiss, they're interrupted by knocking on the door and Isaac screaming through it: "I'm not going to come in but when is Stiles going to make breakfast? I'm hungry!" Stiles chuckles and Derek laughs while half collapsing on Stiles in a sort of way of hugging. Stiles continues smiling while breathing in the smell of Derek. Apparently Isaac is still in front of their door, because he yells again. "I'm serious guys, I'm really hungry and Erica is getting on my nerves!" Stiles chuckles again while trying to untangle himself from Derek.

"I'm coming Isaac." Stiles replies, not yelling back because he know that Isaac will hear him no matter what. Derek lets out a deep sigh. 

"I don't want to get out of bed." He mumbles. 

"Yeah me neither, but the dogs need to be fed." Stiles jokes and Derek chuckles.   
Finally both out of the bed Derek pulls Stiles back into an embrace, when Boyd screams Stiles' name from downstairs. Derek hugs Stiles tighter against him and when he lets go he lets out another sigh. 

"Hey, you chose him." Stiles says. Derek’s face is filled with happiness and it makes Stiles stomach do the same thing it has been doing since he first saw Derek laugh and look happy. They walk downstairs together and when Stiles lets the pack know that he's going to make pancakes, the noise in the kitchen becomes even louder, only this time it exists of exclamations about how much Erica likes pancakes and how much Isaac loves Stiles’ cooking. Stiles smiles and looks at Derek again, who's smiling back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [As this story is orginally posted on fanfiction.net (under the same username as here) I decided to keep the author's note the same for the sake of reasons. Thank you for reading and let me know what you thought!]
> 
> Author’s Note
> 
> First off, I would like to apologize. I posted the first chapter on 9/3/2012 which is more than a year ago now. I would like to say that it was because of a very annoying writer’s block but after obligating myself to continue writing this fanfic I found out that it was not, after all, a writer’s block. I would like to blame my schoolwork for it though, so yaay stupid schoolwork. Which is why I continued writing & finished this story in my summer vacation break.  
> I would like to thank – mostly – the people that have been with me since chapter one (if you are still with me, please let me know!) and have waited a year for me to finish this. Secondly I would also like to thank everyone that has found this story (either recently begun, halfway through or almost finished) for your support through the favourites, follows and reviews has helped me immensely. So thank you!  
> This job has been really tough on me, mostly because whenever I wrote for myself I never finished anything. This is why I’m very happy – and surprised – with myself for having finished this story, again I couldn’t have done this without your support!  
> The future? Who knows. In the end I really loved writing this fan fiction, so I am positive that I’ll write one again sooner or later. But it will probably be shorter haha because that is also a thing in which I didn’t make it easier on myself.  
> I would also like to apologize for the following things:  
> \- Not making Stiles a BAMF badass (which I’ll try to make up to in the future)  
> \- Giving Scott such little credit, because halfway through season 2 he has started to become a really good best friend to Stiles. Just sorry there.  
> \- I wanted more Laura, but it was just really difficult. I tried.  
> \- So maybe I just kind of ignored the age-differences. Can you blame me? That would have made this so much more complicate!
> 
> Again, thank you, and may my blessings go with you guys! <3
> 
> \- FreezerM


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